Clare of Assisi: Investigations

The Legenda Versificata: Towards an Official Biography

T heLegendaV er s ificata: To wa rds a n O f f i c i a l B i o g ra phy Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap. While working on Clare of Assisi: Early Documents I was continually faced with the question: should I translate a mysterious text contained in the Assisi Codex 338, the Legenda versificata Sanctae Clarae? Consultation with some colleagues confirmed my suspicion that the work was unimportant, redundant, and, since it did not contain any new information about Clare’s life, not worthwhile. Because the degree of difficulty in translating was quite high, I decided to ignore the work. Since that time, however, another nagging question has continually surfaced: who is the author of the widely–known Legenda sanctae Clarae? Many scholars have unquestioningly attributed the Legend to Thomas of Celano and based their conclusions on the text and commentary published by Francesco Pennacchi at the turn of the century. Once I had examined the ecclesiology, images, and scriptural quotations in Thomas’ masterful lives of Saint Francis and compared them with those of the Legend of Saint Clare, I began to question the 70 / Armstrong validity of the position of those who maintain that he wrote the latter work.1 Thus in light of this question, the Legenda versificata raised new questions and prompted me to wonder if it were the second stage in the development of the hagiographic tradition of Clare of Assisi, the Acts of the Process of Canonization being the first, and the Legend of Saint Clare the third. Background Brigitte Cazelles’ The Lady as Saint: A Collection of French Hagiographic Romances of the Thirteenth Century, while focusing on French literature, maintains that, in general, the thirteenth century was “the golden age” of versified hagiography.2 Cazelles offers a variety of versified legends, thirteen in all, that convincingly proves her point, all of them pertaining to the lives of female saints. We of the Franciscan world have been well aware of the importance of this hagiographic genre because of the versified legend of Henri d’Avranches who adapted the Vita prima of Thomas of Celano into a well–written poetic masterpiece. But Cazelles' work broadens our awareness by publishing a versified legend of the Tertiary Franciscan, Elizabeth of Hungary, by Rutebeuf, a well– known Parisian poet. 1 Cf. Regis.J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap.,“Clare of Assisi, the Poor Ladies, and the Ecclesial Vision of Thomas of Celano’s First Life,” Laurentianum 32 (1991) 104-145; reprinted in Greyfriars Review 5:3 (1991) 389424 . 2 Brigitte Cazelles, The Lady as Saint: A Collection of French Hagiographic Romances of the Thirteenth Century, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991) 3. Legenda Versificata / 71 Cazelles’ interest lies in the presence of these versified legends in the vernacular. Nevertheless, she focuses on two reasons for the dissemination of these legends in general. In the first place, she maintains, medieval hagiographic literature was “essentially a didactic enterprise whose purpose is to exalt the saints of the Christian tradition as emblems of a virtuous mode of living.” In other words, these lives were a means of teaching morality and were fundamentally works of edification. Secondly, medieval hagiographic literature was a literate exercise requiring “the ability to interpret the Word of God as embodied in His saints and articulate this message for the benefit of illiterate listeners.” The emphasis, then, was on what Cazelles calls “literate orality.” Authors were challenged to produce pleasing verses that would delight the ears of their listeners and did their utmost to provide literate stimuli that would stretch their audiences’ poetic imagination. Furthermore, these were works that were delivered in the context of the courtly tradition. Thus there was a natural tendency to highlight the writer’s skill, to be charmed by an author’s creativity, and to delight in the capacity to interpret the author’s intentions. The Legenda Versificata Sanctae Clare What is this work that holds our attention? Are we dealing, as some suggest, with a legend that was put into verse, that is a work that is dependent on the Legend of Saint 72 / Armstrong Clare? Or are we dealing, as others maintain, with a work that was written in the fourteenth or fifteenth century? As we shall see, we are dealing with a versified hagiographic portrait of 1725 lines following a strict rhythm. Its internal evidence as well as the external, manuscript evidence...