Eleazar Horn (ca. 1690-1744)

OFM. German friar. Entered the Franciscan Recollects in the Sank Elisabet province of Thüringen. He finished his theological education by 1716. Eight years later, in 1724, he departed for Palestine. Following a short sojourn on Cyprus, he arrived in Jerusalem by October of that year. Between May and August 1725, he was the guardian of the Holy Sepulcre monastery. Then, in January 1726, he became the organist of the Ain Karem community. In 1727, he returned to Jerusalem, where he stayed for more or less a decade, aside from a short stay at Belen in 1731-1732. After another stint at Ain Karem, Eleazea returned for a while to Germany, but he was back in Palestine a few years later. In 1743, he could be found in Gallilea and especiall at Nazareth, where he measured and drew medieval monuments. In 1744, while at St. John of Acre, he had a stroke and died on 28 November. Known for his Ichnographiae, locorum et monumentorum veterum Terrae Sanctae, which depicts many old monuments and which itself was partly based on and inspired by the two-volume Historica, theologica et moralis Terrae Sanctae Elucidatio, compied by his fellow Franciscan Franciscus Quaresimi. (Antwerp, 1634-1639). Counter to Quaresimi’s work, Eleazar’s Ichnographiae remained unpublished until the 1902 edition made by Golubovich.

editions

Ichnographiae, locorum et monumentorum veterum Terrae Sanctae, ed. H. Golubovich (Rome, 1902). This edition was re-issued with an English translation in Jerusalem, 1962.

literature

See, aside from the information given in the introduction in Golubovich edition of the Ichnographiae especially LThK, 1^st ed. V, 146; A. Aros, ‘Carta inédita de Elzeario Horn, O.F.M. (1737)’, AFH 68 (1975), 207-215; R. Aubert, ‘Horn’, DHGE XXIV, 1126-1127.

Elemosina Gualdensis (Johannes Elemosina, ca. 1280-1339)

Italian Friar Minor from Umbria. Member of the Gualdo friary around 1330. He also lived for some time in Assisi and might heve sojourned in the Holy Land province. He is the author of a rather peculiar regional world chronicle, with a specific emphasis on Umbria. The chronicle starts with the creation but only starts to provide more detailed information when it deals with the Roman Empire. The author uses a wealth of sources (chronicles travel stories, theological treatises), among which figure a series of specific works of Franciscan and non-Franciscan long distance travelleres, such as Marco Polo, Orderico of Pordenone, John of Montecorvino and Andreas of Perugia). Elemosina's chronicle is organized around a large number of 'key figures' who carry the historical narrative. The chronicle is also interesting for the way it presents events from different perspectives. It is spare in its use of dates and it repeatedly looks backwards or forwards in time. Elimosina's text shares this rather innovative or in any case not very common way of organizing its materials with the Franciscan chronicle of Paolo of Gualdo/Anonymus Umber (cf. Vauchez, `Fratri Minori, eremitismo e santità laica, 274-5), yet another Franciscan chronicler from Umbria, who seemingly was a major source of inspiration for Elemisina. However, Elemosina's chronicle is far more erudite, more latinate, and covers a larger geographical area (including Palestine). In that sense, Elimosina's chronicle is much more a world chronicle than the far more regional chronicle of Paolo/Anonymus Umber. Elimosina's chronicle has survived in two autograph manuscripts, and in a rather strange sixteenth-century forgery surviving in two texts and ascribed to Giovanni di Capistrano (MS Rome, Bibl. Vat. Fonds Chigi I, VII, 262; MS Rome, Bibl. Corsini, 776 (39 G2)). Thus far, Elimosina's text has not been edited in full. It has received soms serious scholarly attention from Ruggero Guerrieri, François Fossier and Isabelle Heullant-Donat.

manuscripts

Cronica: MS Assisi, Bibl. Comunale. 341; MS Paris Bibl. Nat. fonds latin 5006 [A thorough reworking by the author himself.]

editions

Fragments of the work have been included in Girolamo Golubovich (ed.), Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell'Oriente Francescano, I & II (1906, 1913) passim; F. Antonelli, `Elogium S. Antonii de Padua, auctore frate Elemosina (circa an. 1336)’, Antonianum, 6 (1931), 383; Vauchez, `Frati minori...', 303-304 (on St. Maio and St. Marzio). I. Heullant-Donat gives several passages her doctoral dissertation Ab Origine Mundi and in other studies mentioned below.

literature

Sbaralea, Supplementum, I, 60-61 (Anonymus Italus XV); Ruggero Guerrieri, 'Le cronache e le agiografie francescane medioevali Gualdesi ed i loro rapporti con altre cronache et leggende agiografiche umbre’, Miscellanea Francescana 33 (1933) 198-241; François Fossier, 'Les chroniques de fra Paolo da Gualdo et de fra Elemosina. Premières tentatives historiographiques en Ombrie’, Mélanges de l'école française de Rome. Moyen Age-Temps Modernes. 89 (1977) 411-483; G. Mazzatinti (ed.), Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia, IV, Forlì 1894, 77-78, no. 341; André Vauchez, `Frati minori, eremitismo e santità laica: Le `vite' dei santi Maio (m. 1270 ca.) e Marzio (m. 1301) di Gualdo Tadino', in: Idem, Ordini mendicanti e società italiana xiii-xv secolo (Milan, 1990), 274-305; C. Manetti, `Acri 1291', Quaderni Medioevali, 33 (1992), 163-172; I. Heullant-Donat, Ab Origine Mundi. Fra Elemosina e Paolino da Venezia. Deux Franciscains Italiens et l'histoire universelle au xive siècle, Thèse pour le doctorat ès-lettres, 3 Vols. (Paris, 1994)>>>; Enzo Coli, `Perdita della Terrasanta e abolizione dell'Ordine Templare nella Cronaca di fra Elemosina ofm', in: La fine della presenza degli Ordini militari in Terra Santa e i nuovi orientamenti nel XIV secolo. Atti del II Convegno Internazionale di Studi di Perugia-Magione, ottobre 1991, ed. F. Tommasi, Biblioteca di Militia Sacra 1 (Ponte San Giovnni-Perugia, 1996), 181-193; Roger Aubert, ‘Johannes Elemosina’, DHGE XXVII, 1370; Isabelle Heullant-Donat, ‘Livres et éctrits de mémoire du premier XIV siècle: Le cas des autographes de Fra Elemosina’, in: Libro, scrittura, documento della civiltà monastica e conventuale nel Basso Medioevo (secoli XIII-XV). Atti del Convegno dell’Associazione italiana dei paleografi e dei diplomatisti, ed. Giuseppe Avarucci -Rosa Maria Borraccini verducci - Giammario Borri (Spoleto, 1999), 239-262>> `sono ricondotti a Elemosinaa vari manoscritti legati da diverso rapporto alla figura del francescanesimo: Assisi Biblioteca Comunale 341 & 427; Parigi BNF lat. 5006; Vat.Lat. 5417 & 7853. I primi tre recano esplicite formule di ex-dono; inoltre il ms. 341 di Assisi, i due esemplari vaticano e quello paarigino conservano testi di cui Elemosina pare essere l’autore o il compilatore…; Andrea Sommerlechner, ‘Kaiser Friedrich II. in der Weltkronik des umbrischen Minoriten Fra Elemosina (1335/1336)’, Römische Historische Mitteilungen 39 (1997), 197-275; Isabelle Heullant-Donat, ‘Livres et écrits de mémoire du premier XIVe siècle: Le cas des autographes de fra Elemonisa’, in: Libro, scrittura, documento della civiltà monastica e conventuale nel basso medioevo (secoli XIII-XV). Atti del Convegno di studio Fermo (17-19 settembre 1997), ed. G. Avarucci, R.M. Borraccini Verducci & G. Borri (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1999), 239-262+ XXVI tables.

Electus Betsch (1600-1672)

OFMCap. Swiss friar. Entered the order in 1618. Together with Ambrosius Rein von Altheim (d. 1663), he composed on request of the provincial authorities the first official annals of the Swiss Capuchin province, from its beginnings until 1650. Several continuations followed.

editions

>>>>

literature 

Die schweizerische Kapuzinerprovinz. Ihr Werden und Wirken (Einsiedeln, 1928), 344, 377, 390.

Eleuterius Albergoni (Eleuterio Albergoni, c. 1560-1636)

OFMConv. Italian friar and famous preacher. Provincial minister of Lombardy, counsellor of the Inquisition, advisor of Cardinal Conti, regent of the Milan San Francesco theological gymnasium, and penitentiary of Milan Cathedral. Was appointed bishop of Monte-Marano (Kingdom of Naples) by Pope Paul V on 29 Oct. 1611, a position that he kept for 25 years. Theological author.

editions

Resolutio doctrinae scoticae, in quid Doctor Subtilis circa singulas, quas exagitat quaestiones sentiat, et si oppositum alii opinentur, brevibus ostenditur (Padoue, 1593; Lyon, 1653). [short manual for the students of the Milan gymnasium, produced when Eleuterio was regent of that institution. Highly pedagogical.]

Commentarium in Psalmos>>>

Commentarium super Magnificat (Milan, 1598; Rome, 1631).

Sermones/Sermoni (Milan, 1594-1598; Rome, 1606 & 1631).

literature

Hurter, Nomenclator III, 645; Argellati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium I, 16 & II, 1934; Mazzucchelli, Gli scrittori d’Italia I, i, 284-285; P. Arcari, ‘Albergoni’, DHGE I (1912), 1399; DThC I (1902), 660.

Elias de Bourdeille (ca. 1410-1484, Artannes, near Tours)

Born at Agonac, as the fifth son of the royal Seneschal of Périgord, Arnaud de Bourdeille, he entered the Franciscan order at Périgueux and studied theology, first at the studium of Périgueux, and subsequently at Toulouse. Became doctor in theology at Toulouse University. Taught Sacred Scripture at the Franciscan convent of Mirepoix. He became bishop of Périgueux in 1437, more or less against his will, but at the outright request of Eugenius IV (who therewith confirmed the whishes of the Périgueux canons). Active at the council of Basel. Archbishop of Tours since 1468. Because of his blameles conduct, he counted as a model prelate, who succeeded to keep on good friends with royal and papal authorities even when the pragmatic sanction of Bourges caused great conflicts between the crown and the papacy. Elias defended papal and anticonciliar positions, which shows in his work, but was also active in the rehabilitation process of Jeanne d'Arc, which helped to deserve the esteem of king Charles VII and Louis XII of France. The latter made him into his confessor and chaplain, a position which he kept even when the conflict around the sanction of Bourges was renewed. Shortly after his death, Elias was already regarded a saint and he received a life by a secretary and confessor Peter of Bois-Morrin (1485/1490). Yet he was never canonized, not withstanding serious efforts to this effect in the sixteenth century.

works/editions

Contra Pragmaticam Gallorum Sanctionem (Rome, 1486/Toulouse, 1518).

Defensorium Concordatorum (Paris, 1520). This work was repeatedly reprinted with the concordats of Leon X and King François I of France.

Considération sur la Pucelle de France>>> a plea for the canonisation of Jeanne d’Arc, written after he was asked by the French King Charles VII to join a committee that was to re-evaluate the process of Jeanne d’Arc. Elias’ Consideration later became a basis for papal investigations that would eventually lead to Jeanne’s sanctification.

literature

B.Th. Poüan, Le saint cardinal Hélie de Bourdeille, 2 Vols (Neuville-sous-Montreuil, 1900); Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke IV, no. 4966; P. Calendini, ‘Bourdeille’, DHGE X, 148-149; H. Müller, Die Franzosen, Frankreich und das Basler Konzil (Paderborn, 1990), 683.

Elias de Cortona (Elia da Cortona, ca. 1180-1253, Cortona)

Disciple of Francis and second minister general of the order. Was a missionary and later provincial minister in the new province of Syria. Accompagnied Francis back to Italy and became his vicarius. Was important for the organization of the order, in close cooperation with cardinal Hugolino (for instance in the proces leading to the Regula Bullata). Played an important role in the creation of a messianistic image of Francis (letters, creation of the basilica in Assisi). As a minister general he became a controversial figure. Though he was not without education himself, and promoted the education of Franciscan friars, he represented the lay element in the order. This, as well as his behavior as minister general (arrogance, transgressions of the rule (poverty), at least if we can believe the biassed sources from later date), created much antagonist feelings, especially among the clerical friars. Became active in the peace talks between Frederick II and Gregory IX, but was soon accused of sympathizing with the emperor. He was deposed in 1239, and, after his flight to Frederick's court, excommunicated. He reconciled himself with Church and order shortly before his death.

editions:

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>>alchemical works??

literature:

Paul Sabatier, ‘Examen de la Vie de frère Elie du Speculum Vitae, suivi de trois fragments inédits’, in: Idem, Opuscules de critique historique II, 165-209; Daniele Primo Dallari, Il dramma di Frate Elia (Milan, 1974); G. Barone, `Frate Elia', BISI, 85 (1974/75); Dieter Berg, `Elias von Cortona', Wissenschaft und Weisheit, 41 (1978), 102-126; Daniele Dallari, ‘Le relazioni di Frate Elia con s. Antonio di Padova’, Il Santo 19 (1979), 57-66; J. Wiener, Bauskulptur von S. Francesco, Franziskanische Forschungen, 37 (Werl, 1991); Helmut Feld, ‘Elias von Cortona’, in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart II (4th ed.), 1215; Felice Accrocca, ‘Un apocrifo la ‘Lettera enciclica di frate Elia sul transito di S. Francesco’?’, Collectanea Franciscana 65 (1995), 473-509; Giulia Barone, ‘Brother Elias revisited’, Greyfriars Review 13 (1999), Suppl. 1-18; Vincenzo Granata, San Francesco d’ Assisi nel suo ideale, nel suo stile , nei sui eredi. Frate Elia suo vicario per venti anni, guida del Movimento del Santo Patriarca (Marigliano (Naples): Edizioni L.E.R., 1999); Giulia Barone, Da Frate Elia agli spirituali, Fonti e ricerche 12 (Milan, 1999); Filippo Venuti, Vita di Frate Elia da Cortona, ed. Edoardo Mori, Accademia Etrusca, Cortona, Fonti e testi, 7 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2002) [cf. review in Frate Francesco n.s. 70 (2004), 240f]; Pietro Messa, Frate Elia da Assisi a Cortona. Storia di un passaggio, Cortona Francescana, 2 (Cortona: Academia Etrusca, 2005) [cf. review in CF 77 (2007), 416-418]; Giulia Barone, ‘Elias von Cortona und Franziskus’, in: Franziskus von Assisi: Das Bild des Heiligen aus neuer Sicht, ed. Dieter R. Bauer, Helmut Feld & Ulrich Köpf, Beihefte zum Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, heft 54 (Cologne-Weimar-Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2005), 183-194.

Elisius Bellagranda (Eliseo di Bellagrande, 1608-1672)

OFMCap. Italian friar from Oriano. Took the habit in the Brescia province. Already a doctor in utroque jure before his entrance in the order, he received an additional training in philosophy and theology. Active as a lector, guardian, definitor and provincial (1665-1668). In the course of his teaching assignments, he wrote various works.

editions

Compendiosa Rerum Criminalium Methodus Theoretice Simul ac Practice Digesta (Venice, 1672).

Quaestiones Criminales in Stylo Scholastico Digestae, 2 Vols. >>never edited?

literature

Bernardo di Bologna, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Ordinis Minorum Capuccinorum (Venice, 1747), 77-78; V. Bonari, I conventi ed i cappuccini Bresciani (Milan, 1891), 149; A. Teetaert, ‘Bellagrande’, DHGE VII, 795-796; LexCap>>

Elias de Nabinal (ca. 1295-1348