Dall’alternanza all’alternativa. Eremo e città nel primo secolo dell’Ordine francescano : una rivisitazione attraverso gli scritti di Francesco e le fonti agiografiche

Resumo

Starting from the own texts of Saint Francis and analysing not only its most relevant hagiographic corpus (T. de Celano, G. da Spira, «De inceptione vel fundamento ordinis», «Legenda trium sociorum», «Compilatio assisiensis», etc) but also the «voice» of one of his first companions (friar Leon), the life in hermitage during the first decades of the 14th century is shown to have been presented as «a» way – (the «Spirituals» insisted on «the» way) – to preserve the true franciscanspirit. The latter stood in contrast to the increasingly important role played by the Order in urban life. Anyway, and for that very reason, the dialectics hermitage/city, always present in the life of the Order, had remarkable influence on the latter over time.