Dante and the Franciscans (review)

This collection brings together essays regarding one of the central characters of the Commedia, Francis of Assisi, who, together with Saint Paul, represents the spiritual guide to the "viator-author-theologian" Dante Alighieri. Francis is the most poignant exemplum of imitatio Christi that Dante adopts, as this volume gloriously confirms. The ten essays — and I suppose the editor purposefully chose this number, considering that the Heaven of the Sun begins in canto 10 of Paradiso — splendidly complement one another, creating a unified body of knowledge on the spiritual presence, teachings, and magisterium of Saint Francis and the Franciscans. Every essay underscores the presence of Francis in the Commedia through his teaching and the influence he exercised on his followers such as Bonaventure, Olivi, Ubertino, Joachim of Fiora, San Bernardino, Piccarda Donati, and others.

The volume opens with a praiseworthy essay by V. S. Benfell III on "Peter John Olivi and the Franciscans" and how this influential Spiritual Franciscan influenced Dante's apocalyptic vision in Inferno 19 and Purgatorio 32. Though Dante does not mention Olivi and does not share his view of the end of history, there is no doubt he knew his work. The essay is extremely well-researched and judicious, and it establishes the link between the two figures. Tonia Bernardi Triggiano's piece on Piccarda Donati, "Clarissan Spirituality and Dante," provides a historical perspective because of Dante's issues with the Donati family but also a theological one: the strong Franciscan theological content beneath the teachings of the Clarissan theology in Piccarda's answers in Paradiso 3. Most important is the presentation of the everlasting influence of Piccarda's portrait on subsequent women who chose this kind of spiritual life. Santa Casciani's "Bernardino, Reader of Dante" succinctly and richly points out Dante's influence on Bernardino's Sermon 23 through the episode of Guido da Montefeltro in Inferno 27. It underscores Guido's betrayal of Franciscan spirituality and the neglect of the conscience, and it suggests further avenues of research on this subject. W. R. Cook and R. B. Herzman offer in their essay a clear and thorough exposition of what Dante learned from Francis: poverty, humility, simplicity, consciousness of history, and one's active role in it. The authors point out the presence of Francis in the Commedia as the Sun who radiates all the virtues and the Heaven of the Sun as a rewriting of the Canticle of Creatures.

Elvira Giosi's "A Franciscan Explanation of the cinquecento dieci e cinque" adds fruitfully to the scholarship of this enigma through Hebrew gematria. The theological metaphor of feet as symbols of rectitude and justice sagaciously suggests the appearance of a messianic messenger announcing the seventh state of Joachim of Fiora, or Saint Francis resurrected (whom Ubertino describes as having "straight feet"). This piece will stir up debate, but it is based on solid ground.

Giuseppe Mazzotta's essay "Dante's Franciscanism" is a magisterial analysis of Inferno 27, "Guido's mockery of Franciscan principles," raising issues of political theology, the liberal arts, and Franciscan assaults on logic and grammar. Mazzotta brilliantly points to such Bonaventuran texts as Collationes in Hexameron and De reductione artium ad theologiam as the intellectual, theological, and political sources of Dante's Heaven of the Sun. Most inspiring for today is the notion of Saint Francis as a demolisher of crusades and a bastion of peace intending "to tear down the theological barriers dividing Christians and Muslims." Mazzotta, moreover, is subtle about the role of Saint Dominic, whose "warlike dispositions" are attenuated by "the passionate nexus between philosophy and religious faith" (195).

Amanda Quartz's essay, "The Life of the World to Come: The Franciscan Character of Paradiso," is a valuable contribution on the ways in which Francis inspired Dante through the path of Love (Beatrice) that the intellect cannot fulfill. The piece "The Cross as te in 'The Canticle of Creatures,' Dante's 'Virgin Mother,' and Chaucer's 'Invocation to Mary'" by...