Manoscritti agiografici francescani nelle biblioteche dei Minori

This paper examines the manuscript transmission of Franciscan hagiographical texts within the libraries of the Friars Minor between the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, focusing on the material evidence preserved in documentary inventories rather than on textual criticism. By analysing library catalogues, sacristy inventories, and records of donations and inspections—especially from the convents of Todi, Gubbio, Pisa, and Assisi—the study reconstructs the presence, circulation, and functional placement of Franciscan vitae within mendicant book collections. Particular attention is given to the systematic predominance of Bonaventure’s Legenda maior and to the marginalization or loss of earlier biographical traditions, a process closely connected to institutional control of memory and preaching practices. The paper highlights the fragmentary and heterogeneous nature of the surviving manuscript evidence, emphasizing the diversity of formats, materials, and uses, and argues for a methodological shift that privileges the physical and documentary realities of manuscripts over synthetic or idealized models of mendicant libraries. In doing so, it situates Franciscan hagiography within the broader economy of books serving preaching, liturgy, and communal identity in the medieval Franciscan Order.