Le vite quattrocentesche di s. Bernardino da Siena. Vol. 3: Il canone agiografico di San Bernardino (post 1460) ed. by Daniele Solvi (review)

Abstract

The Sienese Bernardino Albizeschi (1380-1444), the acclaimed Franciscan preacher, theologian and missionary was a key figure in the promulgation of the Observant movement in Central and Northern Italy. His relatively quick canonization only six years after his death was the result of the joint efforts of the Republic of Siena, princes and signori from different parts of Europe and the Franciscans (Conventuals and Observants alike), including Giovanni da Capestrano, general vicar of the Cismontan Observant family (1443-1446, 1449-1452), who, among several other tasks related to the canonization, was active in the registration of the miracles of his predecessor. A number of sources testify to his veneration in Central Europe that sprang up immediately after his death, many of which can directly be associated with Giovanni da Capestrano’s activity in the region, and which increased further after Bernardino’s canonization in 1450.191 In Hungary, Bernardino was known in already in his lifetime thanks primarily to those members of the entourage of King Sigismund who spent considerable time in those parts of Italy where the Observant preacher was active.192 The work edited by Daniele Solvi and published in 2018 is the third volume of the four-part series Le vite quattrocentesche di S. Bernardino da Siena directed together with Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli. The project developed from the idea they had shared with Claudio Leonardi