Il Dialogus e la Summula Monaldina del francescano Servasanto da Faenza (XIII sec.): due scritti ritrovati

Abstract

The Franciscan Servasanto da Faenza is the author of several sermons and moral treatises, composed in central Italy (and mostly in Florence) in the second half of the thirteenth century. Servasanto’s works deserve attention due to their distinctive features (e.g., the vast number of references to philosophical, classical and scientific sources), and also because they are conceived in a milieu that is particularly relevant to medieval literature and art. This paper reports on the finding of two texts by the Franciscan so far considered lost, the Dialogus contra tristitiam animorum and the Summula Monaldina, which are transmitted by manuscript Città delVaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 9328. A close examination of the contents and a comparison with the references to the Dialogus and the Summula made by the friar in other works are provided to support the identification and the attribution of the writings in the Vatican codex.