Edition of Attilio Bartoli Langeli
Bartoli Langeli studied the manuscript of this autograph of Francis and offered a significantly different edition of the text,a one which suggests that not only was he not accustomed to writing, but that his educational level may well have been “somewhere between illiteracy and full and complete literacy.”b
1Brother Leo, your brother Francis
2health and peace. I am speaking to you,
3my son, in this way as a mother—because
4all the words that we spoke
5on the road I place and advise
6briefly in this messagec and
7afterwards, it is not necessary
8to come to me for counsel.
9Because I advise you thus: In what-
10ever way it seems better
11to you to please the Lord
12God and to follow His footprintsd and
13poverty, you may do it
14with the blessing of the Lord
15God and my obedience.
16And if it is necessary for youe
17for your soul for some
18consolation to you,f and you want
19to come back to me, come.
- Attilio Bartoli Langeli, "Gli scritti da Francesco. L’autografo di un ‘illitertus,’ " Frate Francesco d’Assisi. Atti del XXI Convegno Internazionale, Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medievo, 1994, 101-159.
- Cf. Bartoli Langeli, p. 122, n. 4.
- The editor has taken the liberty of re-arranging the text for the sake of readability. The Bartoli Langeli text reads literally: "4all the words that we spoke 5on the road briefly in this message 6I place and advise ..."
- Whereas Esser read vestigiam (singular), sensing that the final mark indicated an abbreviation, Bartoli Langeli sees it as a characteristic of Francis’s way of dotting an "i."
- Bartoli Langeli believes that these last four lines were added later for there is an obvious change of pen. Accordingly, he suggests that Francis ended his letter with obedientia and then added the last four lines.
- This phrase is difficult to interpret. According to Bartoli Langeli the parchment reads: "17... propter aliam 18consolationem tua et uis." (Italics indicate letters that have been abbreviated or replaced by signs.)
Epistola ad fratrem leonem, Fontes Franciscani, p. 90-92
Editio Bartoli Langeli
1f leo f francissco tuo sa
2lutem et pacem. Ita dico tibi
3fili mei sicut mater. quia
4omnia verba que diximus
5in uia, breuiter in hoc uerbo
6dispono et consilio, et non
7 oportet propter
8consilium uenire ad me.
9quia ita consilio tibi in qo
10cumque modo melius ui
11deturtibi placere domino
12deo et sequi uestigia et pa
13upertatem suam faciatis
14cum beneditione domini
15dei et mea obedientia.
