The Writings of Francis of Assisi: Letters and Prayers

The Salutations of Brother Francis

ThE SaluTaTIONS OF brOThEr FraNCIS JEaN FraNçOIS gOdET-CalOgEraS INTrOduCTION Among the writings attributed to Francis of Assisi are a few pieces belonging to a particular genre rooted in the courtly, chivalrous as well as liturgical literature: the lauda.1 Developed in Italy during the thirteenth century, the lauda probably has its origins in the music and literature of the troubadours of southern France, many of whom fled during the Albigensian Crusade and took refuge in northern Italy. From there they influenced the development of the Italian secular literature, an influence which eventually spread throughout Europe, as far as England, Germany, Poland and Scandinavia. It became instrumental in the development of the vernacular language, and the most famous examples are probably the laude of Brother Jacopone da Todi.2 Francis must have been exposed to the music and literature of the troubadours, as the early Franciscan documents suggest. We read, for example, in the Assisi Compilation: Indeed he wanted and said that first one of them, who knew how to preach, should preach to the people, and after the preaching, they should sing the Lauds of the Lord as troubadours of the Lord. After the lauds, he wanted the preacher to tell the people: “We are troubadours of the Lord, and in this 1 Arnaldo Fortini, La Lauda in Assisi e le origini del teatro italiano (Assisi: Edizioni Assisi, 1961). 2 Jacopone da Todi, The Lauds, trans. Serge and Elizabeth Hughes (New York: Paulist Press, 1982). The Writings of Francis of Assisi 302 we want you to remunerate us, that you stay in true penance.” And he used to say: “Who are, indeed, the servants of God if not in a way his troubadours, who must move the hearts of the people and lift them up to spiritual joy?”3 The writings of Francis contain a few laude in Latin and a couple in vernacular. Composed in Latin are the Exhortation to the Praise of God, the Praises to be Said at All the Hours, the Praises of God, the Salutation of theVirtues and the Salutation of the BlessedVirgin Mary. In vernacular are the Canticle of Brother Sun (a.k.a. Canticle of the Creatures) and the Canticle of Exhortation to the Poor Ladies. This essay will deal with two of the Latin laude, the Salutation of the Virtues (SalV) and the Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (SalBVM). The manuscript tradition for the two Salutations is very strong.4 Two kinds of manuscripts carry Francis’s Salutations: those that have both SalV and SalBVM, and those that have SalV alone. Two Franciscan manuscripts had only SalBVM, but they are lost and unknown Latin manuscripts. SalBVM is transmitted by the Avignon Compilation5 and by the group of Central Italy (a.k.a. of the Portiuncula),6 while SalV is also present in the group of the Assisi 3387 and in the group of Cologne (a.k.a. of the North).8 3 AC 83 (= LP 43); FA:ED 2, 186. 4 For a listing of the manuscripts consult, Kajetan Esser, Die Opuscula des hl. Franziskus von Assisi. Neue textkritische Edition. Zweite, erweiterte und verbesserte Auflage besorgt von Engelbert Grau (Rome: Editiones Collegii s. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1989); for SalBVM, 415; for SalVir, 422-23. 5 Paul Sabatier, “Compilation franciscaine d’Avignon,” Revue d’Histoire Franciscaine 1 (1924): 425-31; also in Speculum perfectionis (Paris: Fischbacher, 1898), ClxIIICC . 6 Paul Sabatier, Le Speculum perfectionis ou Mémoires de frère Léon, II (Manchester: University Press, 1931), 1-31; Sophronius Clasen, Legenda antiqua des hl. Franziskus (Leiden: Brill, 1967), 169-72. 7 Kajetan Esser, “Die älteste Handschrift der Opuscula des hl. Franziskus (cod. 338 von Assisi),”Franziskanische Studien 26 (1939): 120-42, reprinted in Studien zu den Opuscula des hl. Franziskus von Assisi (Rome: Istituto Storico dei Fr. Min. Cappuccini, 1973), 1-22; Luigi Pellegrini, “La raccolta dei testi francescani del codice assisano 338.Unmanoscrittocompositoemiscellaneo,”inRevirescuntchartæcodicesdocumenta textus: Miscellanea in honorem Cæsaris Cenci OFM, ed. Alvaro Cacciotti and Pacifico Sella (Rome: Antonianum, 2002), 289-340, reprinted in Frate Francesco e i suoi biografi (Assisi: Porziuncola, 2004), 371-423. 8 Paul Sabatier, Le Speculum perfectionis, II (Manchester: University Press, 1931), 32-73; Clasen, Legenda antiqua, 167-69. The Writings of Francis of Assisi 303 It should be noted that SalBVM is absent from two groups. In particular, it is not present in the manuscript Assisi 338. Kajetan...