Ferrara, unpublished version of a canticle of St. Francis discovered
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It looked like a footnote, a common note written in Latin between the pages of a thirteenth-century manuscript, but it turned out to be the oldest and most complete version ever found of the Exhortation to the praise of God, the work of St. Francis of Assisi which anticipates the Canticle of Brother Sun.
The discovery, anticipated byRoman Observerwas possible thanks to Dr. Roberta Iannetti, PhD student in Paleography at the University of Ferrara (who reports it on her website), and her supervisor, Professor Sandro Bertelli of the Department of Humanities.
The new transcription was found in the first paper of the Pluteus codex 22 dex. 3, now preserved in the Laurentian Library in Florence, but coming from the ancient library of the Franciscan convent of Santa Croce in Florence. The “Laurentian” version identified by Unife, thus defined in reference to the place where the manuscript is located, consists of seventeen verses, mostly quotations from the Bible.
L’Exhortatio – hitherto known only thanks to two late sources – it would have been composed to accompany a pictorial representation of the creatures, and personally written by the Saint on the panel. «There are five extra verses in Laurentian’s version: two, at the end, are blessings; another – Qui fecit nos laudate Dominum – fits into the long list of exhortations to praise modeled on biblical passages. The first and third, on the other hand, seem to refer directly to the circumstances of the composition of the text and to the group of friars around Francis. One addresses “all the friars with hoods”, offering us an early testimony of the habit wanted by the Saint of Assisi for himself and his companions. Finally, the other exhorts all those who “look at this table” to praise God, explain Iannetti and Bertelli.
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