HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

LATER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 301de inchoatione et propagatione ordinis fratrum minorum in Dania et regionibusseptentrionalibus (ca. 1520) produced in the observant friary of Roskilde. 85It sketches the history of the Franciscan order in Scandinavia fromthe 1230s onwards, but emphasises the spread of the observance inthe later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, as well as the beginningtroubles with the Lutherans. The latter problem was taken upagain by the Franciscan Chronica de expulsione, describing the processby which the Franciscan friars were expelled from the Scandinaviancountries between 1528 and 1532. 86The sixteenth century saw the appearance of large documentaryhistories in the Franciscan family with a larger ‘all-Franciscan’ perspective,such as the Monumenta ordinum fratrum minorum, the Firmamentumtrium ordinum beatissimi patris nostri Francisci, and the Speculum minorum,replete with editions of constitutions and other official texts; a tendencythat was to culminate in the Annales of Lucas Wadding a centurylater. The Monumenta, the Firmamentum and the Speculum minorum, whichstill await their first critical study, were very much the results ofteamwork. 87III.3Dominican order chroniclesWhereas the Franciscans were quick in the production of provincialchronicles, the Dominicans took the lead with the production of generalorder histories, starting with Jordan of Saxony’s Libellus de initioordinis fratrum praedicatorum (ca. 1233). 88 The work, written on requestof younger friars, holds a middle ground between a hagiographicencounter with the order’s early saints and a full-blown history ofthe early Dominican order. It provides relatively little information85Petrus Olai, De ordine fratrum minorum, ed. M. Cl. Gertz, in Scriptores MinoresHistoriae Danicae Medii Aevi 2 (Copenhagen, 1922), 279–324; see Rasmussen (1976).86Cronica de Expulsione fratrum minorum, ed. M. Cl. Gertz, in Scriptores Minores HistoriaeDanicae Medii Aevi 2 (Copenhagen, 1922), 325–67. This work was written on requestof the provincial superior, with in mind possible future proceedings to retrieve lostproperties. Rasmussen (1998), 17.87The works of these compilers (respectively Anthony of Medina, Anthony ofRincon, Francis Ledesman, Boniface of Cerva, and Gerard Zoethelme) only existin old editions: Monumenta ordinum fratrum minorum (Salamanca, 1506–11); Firmamentumtrium ordinum beatissimi patris nostri Francisci (Paris, 1512); Speculum minorum (Rouen,1509); see Wadding (1906), 28; Sbaralea (1908–36), 1:88.88Libellus de initio ord. praedicatorum, ed. H. C. Scheeben, MOPH 16/2 (Rome,1935), 25–88 Cf. Kaeppeli (1970–93), 4:178.