Virtus est via ad gloriam?: John of Wales and Michele da Massa in Disagreement

215 Franciscan Studies 63 (2005) VIRTUS EST VIA AD GLORIAM? JOHN OF WALES and MICHELE DA MASSA IN DISAGREEMENT Introduction The Breviloquium de virtutibus antiquorum principum et philosophorum, written between 1260 and 1270 in Paris by the Franciscan theologian John of Wales († ca. 1285), counts undoubtedly among the most popular treatises on the cardinal virtues ever written. Jenny Swanson, who produced an extensive study on John of Wales and his major works, lists more than 150 manuscripts spread over all Europe and at least four early printed editions; in fact, her list of manuscripts is far from complete .1 Moreover, the Breviloquium has been translated into several languages, including French, English, Italian, Dutch and Catalan.2 This article results from the research program “A Genealogy of Morals; The Cardinal Virtues in Medieval Discourse, 500-1500,” co-sponsored by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) and the Catholic University of Nijmegen. It was written with support of István Bejczy. Much information on the discourses on the cardinal virtues in the 12th century is generously provided by him. I would like to thank Jonathan Black, Dirk-Jan Dekker, Joeseph Goering, Michael Hohlstein, Matthieu van der Meer and Krijn Pansters for their comments and suggestions. 1 Jenny Swanson, John of Wales; A Study of the Works and Ideas of a Thirteenth-Century Friar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 233-57 gives an impressive list of manuscripts based on available manuscript catalogues and lists. New databases and published catalogues made it possible to identify 30 MSS not known to Swanson. In the MSS the work appears under many different titles. The titles that appear most often are Breviloquium de virtutibus antiquorum principum et philosophorum (with variations) and Breviloquium de quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus (with variations). A list of MSS will appear in the edition of the Breviloquium I am preparing with Michiel Verweij. See also Bert Roest, Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent, Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, vol. 117 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004). 2 For translations see Swanson, John of Wales, 204-7; Richard Newhauser, The Treatise on Vices and Virtues in Latin and the Vernacular, Typologie des Sources du Moyen Âge Occidental , vol. 68 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1993), 131. See also Norbert d’Ordal, Joan de Gal.les, Breviloqui (Barcelona: Barcino, 1930, edition of the Catalan version); Rosamond Tuve, “Notes on the Virtues and Vices,” in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 26 ALBRECHT DIEM 216 The reason for the popularity of John’s short treatise (the text comprises about forty pages in modern print) is probably that the Breviloquium reads in fact neither as a treatise on the cardinal virtues (as its title and structure would suggest) nor as a work for the moral instruction of rulers (as its Prologue announces). It is predominantly a collection of about 190 antique exempla of virtuous acts and edifying proverbs quoted or paraphrased from classical and, to a much lesser extent, Christian authors.3 Almost three quarters of these exempla are borrowed from the Facta et dicta memorabilia of Valerius Maximus, the anthology De nugis philosophorum of Pseudo-Cecilius Balbus4 and the works of Cicero and Seneca. Important Christian sources are Augustine’s De civitate Dei and John of Salisbury’s Policraticus – a work that, according to Beryl Smalley, became popular because of its use by John of Wales.5 John organized the exempla in the Breviloquium according to the catalogue of the cardinal virtues and (though not fully consistently) their Macrobian and Ciceronian subdivisions.6 The four parts of the Breviloquium on iustitia, prudentia, temperantia and fortitudo are of almost equal length. Occasionally John went beyond just setting out ex- (1963): 264-303 and 27 (1964): 42-72, here 264-5 and 272-3 (French and Italian adaptations ); F. Heeroma, “Nieuwe Middelnederlandse Fragmenten II: Dat boec Exemplaer,” in Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 76 (1958/1959): 178-98 (Dutch); Ruth Leslie, “A Work of John of Wales in Mediaeval Spain,” in Salvador Bacarisse et al., What’s Past is Prologue: A Collection of Essays in Honour of L. J. Woodward (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1984), 88-94 (Catalan). 3 For a detailed description of the...