Ugolino Brunforte

Ugolino Brunforte (c. 1262 – c. 1348) was an Italian Friar Minor and chronicler.

Few details of Ugolino's life are known. His father Rinaldo, Lord of Sarnano in the Marches, belonged to an ancient and noble family of French origin, from which sprang the famous Countess Matilda. Ugolino entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of sixteen. He served his novitiate at the convent of Roccabruna, but passed most of his life at the convent of Santa Maria in Monte Giorgio, whence he is often called "Ugolino of Monte Giorgio". In 1295 he was chosen Bishop of Abruzzi (Teramo) under Pope Celestine V, but before his consecration Celestine had resigned and Boniface VIII, who suspected Ugolino as belonging to the Zelanti, annulled the appointment. (See Bull "In Supremae Dignitatis Specula" in "Bullarium Francis", IV, 376.) Nearly fifty years later he was elected provincial of Macerata.

Most scholars are now agreed that Ugolino was the author of the "Fioretti", or "Little Flowers of St. Francis", in their original form. Research has revealed that this classic collection of narratives of the life and miracles of St. Francis, one of the most delightful literary works of the Middle Ages, were translated into Italian by an unknown fourteenth-century friar from a larger Latin work attributed to Ugolino. Or rather the fifty-three chapters which form the true text of the "Fioretti" were, for the four appendixes are additions of later compilers. The earliest manuscript is dated 1390, and is in Berlin. The Italian translation was first printed at Vicenza in 1476. It circulated widely and is considered a masterpiece of Italian literature. There are several English translations.

Although the Latin original has not come down to us, we have in the "Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum Ejus", edited by Paul Sabatier in "Collection d’Études" (Paris, 1902, IV), an approximation to it which may be considered on the whole as representing the original of the "Fioretti". That Ugolino was the principal compiler of the "Actus" seems certain; how far he may be considered the sole author of the "Fioretti" is not so clear. His labour, which consisted chiefly in gathering the flowers for his bouquet from written and oral local tradition, appears to have been completed before 1328.

References

*Luke Wadding, "Scriptores Ordinis Minorum" (1650), 179
*Giovanni Sbaralea, "Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores trium ordinum S. Francisi" (8106), addenda 727
*Luigi da Fabriano, "Disquisizione istorica intorno all' autore dei Fioretti" (Fabriano, 1883)
*"Cenni cronologico-biografici dell' osservante Provincia Picena" (Quaracchi, 1886), 232 "sqq."
*Alessandro Manzoni, "Fioretti" (2nd ed., Rome, 1902), prefazione
*Paul Sabatier, "Fioretum S. Francisci" (Paris, 1902), preface
*Candido Mariotti, "I Primordi Gloriosi dell' ordine Minoritico nelle Marche" (Castelplanio, 1903), VI
*Arnold, "The Authorship of the Fioretti" (London, 1904)
*Camillo Pace, "L'autore del Floretum in Rivista Abruzzese", ann. XIX, fasc. II
*François Van Ortroy, in "Analecta Bollandiana", XXI, 443 "sqq."

External links

* [http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/flowers.htm "The Little Flowers of Saint Francis"] text, in English----"This article incorporates text from the 1913 "Catholic Encyclopedia" article " [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_%281913%29/Ugolino_Brunforte?oldid=338133 Ugolino Brunforte] " by Paschal Robinson, a publication now in the public domain."