Beschreibung:

Giovanni da Capestrano, Collection of legal opinions in defence of the Franciscan Order Minor and the penitent sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, in Latin, manuscript on paper [Italy (perhaps Milan), second half of the fifteenth century] 13 leaves, complete, collation impractical, but in 2 units of 10+3 leaves, single column of approximately 54 lines in a series of late gothic secretarial hands, description of contents in sixteenth-century Italian at head of first leaf, some marginalia and lining through, small spots and marks, splits to edges of a few leaves, else good condition, 290 by 220mm.; contemporary limp parchment binding with flap, small amount of rodent damage at foot, eighteenth-century inscription on front (ink of this mostly fallen away with impressions on surface only remaining) This small codex brings together the legal councils ( consilia ) of some important medieval notaries and lawyers, at the request of Giovanni da Capestrano (1386-1456), in defence of the Franciscan Order Minor and Third Order of Franciscan nuns. They include in the order copied here, the consilium of Catone Sacco (fols. 1r-3r), the consilium of Luchinus de Curte (fols. 3v-4r), the consilium of Bartholomeus de Baratheriis (fol. 4r), the consilium of Lucius de Vernatiis da Cremona (fols. 4v-5r), the consilium of Franciscus de Folengis (fol. 5r), the consilium of Augustinus de Martariis de Castro Novo (fols. 5rv), the consilium of Bertoldus Helmici di Colonia (fols. 6r-9v), and the names of four lawyers without legal comment (perhaps intended to be filled in later, but not completed). This is followed by a series of papal concessions to the orders, namely the Privilegium confirmationis et approbationis regule supradicte et occasione status fratrum de penitentia predictorum (fols. 11rv), the Privilegium pro prelatis et ecclesiasticis vel secularibus quorumcumque ordinis condictionis occasionis collectarum vel talliarum decime viciesime non solvende (fols. 11v-12v), the Privilegium status fratrum et sororum de penitentia (fols. 12v-13v), and the attestation of Giovanni di Tommaso of Riccardo d'Assisi for these privileges. The Franciscan Order was founded in 1209 as a monastic movement based on poverty and humility. Its founder, St. Francis of Assisi died in 1226, and the movement quickly descending into factional fighting over the strictness of their ideals of poverty and abstinence. In the second decade of the fourteenth century the Pope weighed in on their squabbles, with unyielding and ascetic members of the Order committed to the Inquisition and four of their number burnt for heresy. At the time the present documents were brought together, the Order was beginning to fracture into several sects, such as the Fraticelli, who drew the attention of the Pope and the anti-pope alike as heretics. This collection was doubtless put together to lobby for the protection of the traditional members of the Order in such confusing times. The division carried on throughout the fifteenth century and into the early sixteenth century, necessitating the present copy.