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Introduction
- Fordham University Press
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INTRODUCTION Francis of Assisi and Iacopone da Todi stand alone as the only two Franciscan poets in the Italian literary canon.1 Both belong to the beginning period of the Franciscan Order: one at the beginning of the thirteenth century and the dawn of Italian poetry and literature;the other at the end of the thirteenth century, after the canonical tradition of Italian poetry has already been established.They flank the inceptive century of Italian literature and of the Franciscan Order, and mark crucial stages in both. Francis founded the Order and gave it his name.Iacopone fought in favor of a radical understanding of the rule of poverty and witnessed the divisiveness and turmoil of the Order resulting from opposing interpretations of it; he literally battled papal troops to defend his idea of poverty. The two thirteenth-century friars share Franciscanism, Umbrian origin and language, radicalism in the interpretation of the rule of poverty, and literary inclinations.They also write in the same poetic genre of lauda and use similar thematic and rhetorical structures and images; they have common spiritual roots and depend on the same biblical sources for inspiration .2 The two poets diverge in their approach to the material world and in their emphasis on different aspects of the Christian faith.The luminous , positive perspective of Francis of Assisi contrasts the somber, pessimistic theological outlook of Iacopone daTodi.The peaceful, appeased melody of “The Canticle of Brother Sun” opposes the fiery, tormented rhythm of numerous Iacoponian laude.3 The poetic productions of Francis and Iacopone reflect the two opposite sides of the Franciscan theological spectrum and of Christian theology. “Originality” is a term that not only characterizes Francis’s and Iacopone ’s poetry but applies as well to their spiritual positions within the Church. Franciscanism as a rejuvenating movement aspired to revive the spirituality of Christian origins; both Francis and Iacopone strove to liberate the Church from the weighty temporal impediments of materiality and corruption,which had obfuscated the freshness of its beginnings.4 The two poets share an awareness of inchoation, which from a consciously theoretical point of view remains unexpressed in their poetry,but surfaces through other concepts and images; both are aware of operating at the beginning of the Italian literary tradition.As friars, they mark the initial stages of the Franciscan Order. Franciscanism as such aims to reach back to the apostolic period of Christianity at its beginning steps and imitate its purity and poverty. Poverty itself bespeaks the beginning stages of humanity. It posits the need to eliminate encumbering obstacles and reduce reality to the tabula rasa that originally characterized the primeval world.Such preference for origins is often a trait of converts,persons who turn their lives around and start afresh with new goals and a renovated perspective—and Francis and Iacopone,as mystics,are first of all converts. This obsession with the beauty and purity of inchoation invites in both Franciscans a predilection for the primordial stages of humanity, which the Judeo-Christian tradition identifies with the myth of cosmic creation, and the Christian Church at the beginning of its history emulates and reflects.The new Franciscan beginning in the thirteenth century designated poverty as its pivotal source of renewal. It is the virtue of poverty (neither a cardinal nor a theological virtue,but a necessary Christian virtue for Franciscanism nonetheless) that identifies the mission of both mystics, who experience in themselves the unrelenting tension toward the humble condition of the apostolic community at the dawn of Christianity. Besides implying a return to the “origins” as symbol of a pure, uncontaminated past,“originality” signifies the creative, inventive establishment of a fresh, novel element, such as poetry in the vernacular was in thirteenth -century Italy.The lyrical texts of Francis and Iacopone mark the beginning of literary production in Italian—at least in the realm of religious poetry.5 Writing vernacular poetry about God constitutes that daring endeavor, which the two Franciscan poets introduce in the Italian canon before Dante.6 Francis and Iacopone also share the same literary genre.“The Canticle of Brother Sun,” Francis’s only attributable poetic text in the vernacular, is a lauda. Iacopone wrote the Laude, a collection of more than one hundred poems in the genre of lauda. By Francis’s time, and even more so by Iacopone’s, lauda was a well-established poetic genre and a popular form of prayer.7 The Latin lauda had its roots in liturgy. It derived from the...