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1 INTRODUCTION TO THE WRITINGS OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI 1.1
Critical Editions of the Writings
The knowledge regarding the life and charism of Saint Francis of Assisi, until thirty years ago, was largely limited to some of the sources of his life, particularly The Little Flowers of Saint Francis and The Major Legend of Saint Francis, the latter by Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. Few persons realized that Francis of Assisi is, in fact, the author of a group of Witings, among which three are autobiographical. Nowadays, we can be thankful to the Franciscan researchers who have unearthed the manuscripts containing the Writings of Saint Francis, and have handed them down to us in critical editions. These Writings provide us with the personality of Saint Francis as it is revealed in the ideals and values he cherished and transmitted to his followers. The Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding published the first critical edition of the writings of Saint Francis in 1623.1 Wadding published many of the Letters of Saint Francis, together with his Testament and Admonitions, the Earlier and Later Rules, the Canticle of Brother Sun, Office of the Passion, and other prayers, besides other documents which are not part of the writings of Saint Francis, such as the Rule of Saint Clare and the «Memoriale Propositi» of Cardinal Hugolino to the Order of Penitents. This edition is known as the «editio princeps». Wadding introduced the term «Opuscula» when referring to the Writings. This term denotes a group of writings which are short, but which were not necessarily born as documents which were immediately written down. They could well have been sayings, prayers or short conferences, which were handed down orally, until they were written in order to be preserved for posterity. The translation into modern languages of the Latin word «opusculum» (plural «opuscula»), can only be approximate: «schriften», «escritos», «scritti», «écrits», «writings». The edition of Wadding remained the only critical edition until the beginning of the 20th century. The publication of Paul Sabatier’s «Vie de Saint François d’Assise» in 1894 marked the beginning of modern research into the writings of Saint Francis and the sources of his life. In 1904 three editions of the writings appeared, that of Leonhard Lemmens, a Franciscan scholar at the Collegio San Bonaventura of Quarcchi, 2 that of Heinrich Boehmer, at Tübingen, Germany,3 and that of W. Goetz.4 1
L. WADDING, B.P. Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula. Nunc primum collecta tribus tomis distincta, notis et commentariis asceticis illustrata, Antwerp 1623. 2 L. LEMMENS, Opuscula sancti patris Francisci Assisiensis (Bibliotheca Franciscana Ascetica Medii Aevi I), Quaracchi 1904. 3 H. BOEHMER, Analekten zur Geschicthe des Franziskus von Assisi, Tübingen und Leipzig 1904. 4 W. GOETZ, Die Quellen zur Geschichte des heiligen Franz von Assisi. Eine kritische Untersuchung, Gotha 1904.
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