This carefully copied, small-format, portable Franciscan spiritual miscellany, with an illuminated initial and charming colored drawings of St. Francis and Franciscan monks inserted in the space for initials, includes early contemporary? Thirteenth-century manuscripts are increasingly rare, and this is a manuscript important for Franciscan history and the history of spirituality in the West.
Although at first glance, this manuscript appears fairly homogenous, and it was certainly copied in northern Italy in the second half of the thirteenth century, careful study suggests it may have been copied over several decades. The evidence of the script, together with the style of the pen decoration and the illumination of the earliest portion, copied by at least two scribes, from ff.
The manuscript is not dated, and this suggested date is based on stylistic comparisons; the texts included in this early section of the manuscript suggest that a date toward the end of the third quarter of the century is most likely, possibly as late as c. The remainder of the manuscript, again copied by several scribes, in several independent sections, seems likely to be later, probably copied near the end of the thirteenth century.
The content of the manuscript leaves little doubt that it was made for Franciscan use, and its small portable format would have been convenient for a travelling Friar. The manuscript was copied in sections, leaving blank leaves at the end of a number of quires: f.
These blank leaves were used by two writers, probably in the seventeenth century for notes. The first copied rather random notes on Church history on ff. It seems likely that these two writers may have been students — perhaps novices in a monastery, or seminarians, simply using the blank pages their notes do not appear to have any relationship to the contents of the manuscript.
