La memoria di Francesco nei manoscritti dei Minori tra XIV e XV secolo

Starting from a consideration on the relationship between memory and legacy of Francis of Assisi, this paper offers a reasoned overview of the 14th- and 15th-century manuscripts that transmitted – in the form of compilations and miscellaneous anthologies – Francis’s writings, which had soon been put in connection with the hagiographic and biographic works (both signed and unsigned) written about him. The analysis of a number of these compendia, and of the rationale underlying the selection and treatment of the texts they contained, makes it possible to bring them to the fore as qualifying products of the Minorite culture of that period and at the same time bring the focus back on these valuable material sources, which are of primary importance when trying to piece together the fragments of Francis’s identity and original fraternitas.