To conclude…

At the end of our journey, we have understood how the Franciscan intellectual tradition has proposed a spiritual vision of creation closely connected to a scientific approach to reality. Inanimate beings, the plant and animal world, and humanity itself have been investigated with the critical rigor that the categories and methods of the science of the time progressively suggested, always seen, however, in the light of the Canticle of Brother Sun, as brothers and sisters united in the praise of God and co-responsible inhabitants of the “common home” that is the world.

A Tradition that Renews Itself

Today’s scientific research is characterized by fragmentation and hyper-specialization, and it is articulated in complex projects with exorbitant costs, leading to an increasingly clear separation between the few experts and the “laypeople.” Today’s Franciscans – with very rare exceptions – are not “full-time scientists,” although curiosity, interest, and the desire for updates have not disappeared.

Above all, the ideal reference – which has become in a certain sense even more direct and explicit – to the Canticle of Brother Sun has not disappeared. Creation, our world, beyond the need to be better known and understood in its mechanisms, especially needs respect and protection, from prepared and motivated people capable of dedicating themselves full-time to a cultural, social, and political commitment so that our “common home” remains a hospitable environment for everyone.

Not Only the Safeguarding of Creation

In the Franciscan vision, the safeguarding of creation is always connected with two realities that cannot be separated: peace and justice – in line with the message that Pope Francis entrusted to his encyclical Laudato Si’. The spirit of the Canticle, with its openness to the world, the consideration of the fundamental goodness of what surrounds us, the understanding of the fraternal bond with all other creatures and especially with all other men and women, are today the attitudes that accompany not so much an intellectual research directed at creatures, but a choice to become close to and share the commitment to integral ecology.

The Grateful Wonder in Front of Creation 

The Canticle of Brother Francis

The famous Canticle of Brother Sun, also known as the Canticle of the Creatures, is a hymn of praise, a poem in the form of a prayer that expresses an original vision of the world. This song has accompanied the spread of Franciscanism and has profoundly influenced religious sentiment universally.

Its marvelous verses have crossed the centuries, expressing humanity’s wonder at the perfection and beauty of creation:

“Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom You give us light.”

The preservation of the Canticle

The oldest copy of the Canticle of Brother Sun, kept in the Library of the Sacred Convent of Assisi, has come down to us in a collection of fascicles from the 13th century concerning Saint Francis, the origins of the Order of Friars Minor, and Saint Clare.

The birth

In 1225, in a moment of great suffering, Francis, afflicted by severe and painful illnesses, invokes God, who reveals Himself to him, promising Paradise as a reward.

Following this reassurance – known as certificatio – Francis composes Lauds of ecstatic admiration for the beauty of nature and creation.

A revolutionary writing

Saint Francis’s innovation lies in recognizing an unusual brotherhood among all inanimate beings of creation: the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Wind, the Water, and the Fire.

An ode of reconciliation and respect between man and nature, the canticle is a profoundly modern and universal hymn that has survived eight hundred years of our history unscathed.

The absence of animals in the Canticle

Although Saint Francis established a deep relationship of friendship and protection with animals, they do not appear directly in the Canticle, as they are implicitly included among the praisers, companions in the admiration of the universe.

The most famous episode, that of the wolf of Gubbio, is emblematic: the encounter between man and wolf occurs with unarmed hands and hearts, not as enemies, but as brothers in celebrating this universal hymn to God.

Sister Bodily Death

In the verses of Saint Francis, man is a creature aware of the limits of existence, afflicted by infirmities and sufferings. The Canticle is a warning and a call to choose: the humble who have suffered, endured, and forgiven during their earthly journey will be praised and rewarded, becoming witnesses of Christ:

“Praised be You, my Lord, for our sister bodily death, from whom no living man can escape: woe to those who die in mortal sin; blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm.”

With all your creatures

Plants, Animals, and Humans

After exploring the various sections of the exhibition and climbing the trunk to the highest branches of the tree of knowledge, we are ready to grasp an overview of what is preserved in the Franciscan Library of Assisi, through the main divisions of creation: the plant world, the animal world, and the human being.

In this section, we explore the different “images” of nature and the meanings attributed to them over the centuries by naturalists, botanists, microscopists, doctors, and philosophers. An imaginary of creatures evoked in the Canticle and described in the volumes of the exhibition allows us to fill the library shelves, transforming it into the “Library of Creatures.”

Plants, animals, stones, and celestial bodies

In the Liber de moralitatibus, attributed to Fra Marco d’Orvieto, a 13th-century Franciscan author, we find the description of celestial bodies, elements, birds, fish, animals, plants, and precious stones, both in their physical aspect and their spiritual meaning, moralized through biblical quotations.

Another volume of great visual impact is the Herbolario volgare, a wonderful treatise on botany: its beautiful illustrations, the integration of scientific knowledge and popular traditions, and the fact that it was written in the vernacular contributed to its diffusion among generations of apothecaries, herbalists, practical doctors, and convent nurses.

A substantial series of extraordinary works is instead dedicated to animals, their pages enriched with detailed tables, the result of the research and field observations of tireless naturalists, such as Ulisse Aldovrandi with his work entirely dedicated to birds: the Ornithologiae.

Humans

The last two works offer a look at humans through a curious art, metoposcopy, once used as a basis for a sort of psychological expertise useful for understanding the nature, predisposition, and destiny of each individual.

Based on reading the lines of the forehead, metoposcopy combined astrological calculations and observations of a vast case history of human faces, in an attempt to understand the character facets of the most perfect of creatures.

From the investigation of reality to the rediscovery of the creaturely dimension

The exhibition itinerary concludes here, with a summary look at the varied complexity of the animated world, the pinnacle of the work of the Most High, omnipotent good Lord, who manifests the purpose of the entire universe that came from His hands precisely with the creation of beings capable of standing before Him in a reciprocity of freedom and love.

This is the specific feature of the Franciscan intellectual tradition: a spiritual vision of creation that does not exclude a scientific approach to reality. Inanimate beings, the plant and animal world, and humans themselves are investigated with the critical rigor that the categories and methods of the science of the time suggested. But they ultimately return to being those brothers and sisters spoken of in the Canticle of Brother Sun, united in the praise of God and co-responsible inhabitants of the “common home” that is the world.

The body factory

Medicine, Anatomy, and Surgery

The Franciscans, aware that only God can perform miraculous healings, were very interested in medicine and related disciplines aimed at alleviating human suffering. The friars who cared for the sick consulted medical, anatomical, and surgical treatises, thus integrating the direct experience gained in their infirmaries and apothecaries.

The manuscripts

One of the oldest texts on display is the Antidotarium Nicolai: among the most famous medieval recipe books, it provides a list of medications and recipes in alphabetical order. References to care and isolated recipes also appear in manuscripts that host texts of a completely different nature, such as an interesting codex that juxtaposes various metaphysical and natural philosophy questions with a singular Recipe for making celestial water, useful for treating wounds and sores.

Many authors of the medieval and modern ages, referring to medical, alchemical, astrological, philosophical, and even theological sources, sought to discover the factors that could influence the duration of life and the means to prolong it. In this regard, we see a singular work – much later than the previous ones – titled On the Conservation of Man, by the unknown Assisi physician Francesco Corneo, inspired by treatises on longevity.

The first printed texts

In studying and observing various pathologies, the friars constantly updated themselves thanks to new printed treatises. Standing out in its robustness, almost flaunting an uncommon importance, is the significant commentary by Giacomo da Forlì on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a text clearly linked to university teaching, in which the aphorisms of the famous Greek physician and the master’s related comments appear in different typographic characters.

Another significant printed testimony is the imposing incunabulum of the Consilia by Bartolomeo Montagnana, a physician and professor at the University of Padua, one of the most famous and prolific writers of his time. The consilium is a text connected to “what to do,” to the dimension of action, and is written by a physician, mostly of university training, based on the analysis of a specific clinical case.

Finally, we have the Fasciculus medicinae by Giovanni da Ketham, a famous collection of medical texts first printed in Venice in 1491. The book, widely used as a manual and rich in splendid illustrations, had great diffusion and was one of the pillars for teaching the discipline until the mid-16th century.

Modern anatomy and surgery

The library includes texts that have marked the history of anatomy and surgery. This is the case of De humani corporis Fabrica by Vesalius, published in 1543, containing over three hundred plates. The clear intent that animates the treatise is to study bodies as they actually appeared through direct vision and study.

Much later, but still tributary to the Vesalian revolution, is the Tractatus de organo auditus by the French anatomist Joseph-Guichard Duverney. Published in 1683, it is one of the first works on otology – the study of the ear – of extraordinary interest for the treatment and description of the anatomy of the auditory apparatus.

In the field of surgery, the Opera chirurgica by the great French surgeon Ambroise Paré stands out, considered the greatest European surgeon of his time. Unlike Vesalius, he did not favor experience on cadavers but operated directly on living bodies. He had extraordinary insights, both regarding the treatment of wounds inflicted by firearms and in the practice of amputations, for which he intuited the opportunity to tie blood vessels, as was done for hemorrhagic wounds, instead of using cautery.

Elements, minerals, metals, and their transformation

Alchemy

The alchemical knowledge, the protagonist of the magnificent volumes in this section, no longer exists in the ways it was once known and practiced, but some of its forms and reasoning have been useful in defining scientific knowledge.

Over the centuries, various interpretations have been given to alchemical knowledge: some have thought it was a sort of proto-chemistry, others have conceived it as practical-spiritual knowledge, aimed at transforming and perfecting minerals, metals, and substances of a vegetable or animal nature, as well as transforming the practitioner’s spirit.

Franciscanism and alchemy

Despite the numerous ecclesiastical prohibitions, many illustrious members of the Franciscan Order were fascinated by alchemy; some scholars of quick wit, tireless seekers of nature’s secrets, wrote renowned treatises dedicated to this subject. An emblematic example is the great “alchemical encyclopedia” attributed to Fra Bonaventura da Iseo, the Liber Compostelle, an extraordinary collection of experiments and recipes, selected from those made available by the great Arab and Latin alchemical tradition: a vast repertoire to draw from based on the various needs of the moment.

Curious miscellanies

The singular miscellaneous manuscripts, true protagonists of this section, arouse lively curiosity. They are collections of treatises in Latin and Italian, linked to the names of the most well-known authors of the alchemical tradition: famous Franciscans such as Roger Bacon, John of Rupescissa, Raimondo Gaufredi, and even Brother Elias of Assisi, one of Saint Francis’s first companions.

In some cases, the enigmatic, unusual, and suggestive texts address debated questions about the nature of elements, the possibility of their combination and transformation, as well as the realization of the philosopher’s stone and the preparation of powerful medicines.

Others, without particular metaphorical implications, describe laboratory practices. There is extensive use of graphic means such as combinatorial tables and circular figures, variously complicated by inscribed triangles and squares. The tables also contain numerous drawings of alembics, cucurbits, retorts, and tools necessary for distillation, such as furnaces, cooling tubes, and various types of vessels for collecting the distillate.

The first anthology

Closing this section is an interesting printed anthology of the most important authors of the Arab-Latin alchemical tradition, particularly Pietro Bono da Ferrara, published by a little-known 16th-century Calabrian Franciscan, Giano Lacinio, who intended to bring to light the true art of alchemy, obscured and debased by many false masters.

In the world, everything is in motion

The Adventure of Physics

Before mathematics helped us to precisely study nature, physics was mostly expressed in qualitative terms, and if we could absurdly make a scientist of today meet a colleague from the Middle Ages or the early Modern Age, they would hardly find a common language.

The mediation of the classics in the academic field

The oldest manuscripts on display testify to the influence of Aristotelian theories on the masters of medieval universities: many of them were learned Franciscans. This dependence favored extraordinary creativity. The extensive commentaries on Aristotle’s works generated insights and scientific theories that were developed in the following centuries. The splendid illuminated manuscript displayed here contains the exposition of the English Franciscan William of Ockham on Aristotelian physics (Super libros Physicorum Aristotelis).

The transition to the modern age

Attention to nature in all its forms is not limited to the Middle Ages; even in the Modern Age, scholars of the Order were in contact with the most up-to-date scientific production, composing synthesis and commentary texts, enriched with tables, diagrams, and explanatory drawings in which, not infrequently, the intent was to provide original contributions to questions concerning the various branches of physics.

In the displayed volumes, one can observe how in this era the focus was on the connections between mathematical theory and practical applications in the physical field, from ballistics to mechanics, from electricity to magnetism. These works contain diverse cultures and legacies, including meteorological experiments, Renaissance magical experimentalism, modern Galilean experiments, and a real curiosity: the complete project of a flying ship.

The use of images

In the section, there are ten precious and suggestive tables bound together to form a fascicle, probably used by the Order’s masters to make physics lessons in the convent more effective. One of them stands out for curiosity and imagination, representing a bizarre “pneumatic machine.”

On number and vision

Mathematics and Optics

Many sons of Francis recognized the importance of mathematics well before the scientific vision of the world emerged. For Roger Bacon, one of the greatest Franciscan thinkers of the Middle Ages, mathematics opened the doors to understanding the laws of nature and the mutability of phenomena, and constituted the key to building solid scientific knowledge in every field.

Medieval mathematics: between East and West

In medieval universities, the treatise De institutione arithmetica by Severinus Boethius was widely used, here displayed in an incunabulum; but for teaching the basics of calculation, simpler treatises were also used, such as the so-called algorismus, named after the 9th-century Arab mathematician al-Khuwārizmī. The texts contain numerous marginal annotations to facilitate the reader’s orientation, a sign of intense study activity and perhaps a trace of the preparation for exams by anonymous medieval students.

Classical mathematical thought: Euclid

Among the various classics of mathematical thought, Euclid’s Elements stand out, an indispensable reference for the study of the discipline for over two millennia. The work is a precious and systematic reorganization of all the mathematical knowledge accumulated between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, here displayed in an edition published in Venice in 1509 by one of the greatest mathematicians of the Renaissance: the Franciscan Luca Pacioli.

Fra Luca applied the extraordinary practical utility of mathematics learned in the Venetian mercantile environment and, faithful to the Franciscan ideal of total and loving openness to the world, disseminated it in the vernacular to facilitate understanding by students and practitioners.

Optics and perspectiva

In the second part of the section, we also find works on optics or perspectiva, that is, the science of light, studied both from a physical-mathematical and physiological point of view: Roger Bacon, Bartolomeo da Bologna, and John Peckham are just some of the friars who were keenly interested in this discipline, blending theological concepts and scientific theories on light in their treatises.

Noteworthy is a “small” but famous manuscript: the Tractatus de Perspectiva by Peckham, richly accompanied by diagrams and geometric drawings useful for explaining optical phenomena; it is likely a part of the Perspectiva communis, one of the most well-known optics manuals until the 17th century.

The Arab and Latin traditions in the Renaissance

Finally, printed works are displayed that testify to the friars’ interest in the classics of the Arab and Latin traditions. In a volume published in 1572, two works are intentionally united: a treatise on optics, known in Latin as Aspectibus, widely used during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, by Alhazen, an Arab doctor, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer; and the Perspectiva by Witelo (Vitellione), a Polish philosopher and scientist who lived in the 13th century, particularly appreciated by scholars well beyond the Middle Ages, counting among its famous readers the “great” Kepler.

Sister Moon and the Stars

Astronomy

Since man has been on earth, he has not been able to help but look up at the sky to admire its beauty. From the position of the stars and the movements of celestial bodies, he then intuited how to measure time and orient himself on land and sea.

The Church has always been interested in studying celestial motions both for its practical relevance – for example, for calculating Easter – and for its significant speculative and theological implications.

Astronomy from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

But what did the sons of Francis study to grasp the secrets of the sky? A significant example is a manuscript containing various mathematical-astronomical treatises, probably a manual for friar students. The codex includes a notable work, the Tractatus de Sphaera, attributed to the famous English Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Peckham, who masterfully combined Greek, Arab, and Latin astronomy and cosmology theories.

Among the “classics” of the discipline stands out the Almagest of the famous Greek astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy, a geometric-astronomical treatise of the highest technical content. Less complex is the Treatise on the Sphere by John of Sacrobosco (John Holywood), which in four chapters provides a brief description of the different parts of the spherical and finite universe.

The Modern Age

A mandatory reference for this period is Galileo Galilei, one of the fathers of the “new” science: on display are his Works printed in 1744 by Giuseppe Toaldo. After Galileo, many other scientists produced works of great scientific importance, among them the Neapolitan Francesco Fontana with his Novae coelestium, terrestriumque rerum observationes, a volume enriched with an intriguing set of images, describing the “curious” celestial novelties he observed. Of a completely different scope is the Astronomia Reformata by the Jesuit Giovanni Battista Riccioli, an eminent scientist of 17th-century Italy, who sought to answer the complex problems that engaged most astronomers of the time. The Franciscan astronomer Ilario Altobelli was the author of the curious Tabulae regiae. A friend and correspondent of many great scientists of his time – Galileo Galilei, Antonio Magini, Cristoforo Clavio, and Giovanni Battista Riccioli – he was probably the first in Europe, in 1604, to observe the appearance of a “new star,” a primacy that Kepler himself considered possible.

Astronomy and astrology

A curious aspect well represented in the volumes on display concerns the relationship between astronomy and astrology, which were intimately connected until the Enlightenment. This is evidenced by the Summa astrologiae iudicialis, a comprehensive treatise on “astrological theory” by Johannes Eschuid Ashenden, who drew on a multitude of sources and ventured predictions based on supposed influences of eclipses and planetary conjunctions.

A very interesting case is a manuscript from the early 17th century, probably compiled “for internal use” by some religious of the convent. The first of the treatises it contains is a brief introduction to astronomy, while the second, more extensive and articulated, discusses in detail ordinary “astrological questions.” The codex is rich in diagrams, calculations, astrological tables, and suggestive images that would raise more than a few doubts in the modern scientific eye.

The aspiration to universal science

Encyclopedic Knowledge

Cultural effervescence and new ideas characterized the Order from the beginning, so much so that the tree of knowledge, nourished by the inspiration of the Canticle, grows and prospers on the vivacity of the cultural and scientific interests of Francis’s sons, blossoming into many and astonishing blooms.

The Franciscans and the encyclopedic system

This section is dedicated to the encyclopedic approach to knowledge and the fascination that the idea of uniting the principles of all sciences into a single corpus had among the Franciscans, classifying manual and intellectual activities in an attempt to make knowledge accessible to the highest number of people.

Medieval encyclopedias

Among the most significant examples of medieval encyclopedism are the texts of Bartholomew Anglicus and Ramon Llull. Bartholomew, known as “magister de proprietatibus” from the name of his most famous work, was the author of an important encyclopedic compilation, considered an excellent general introduction to knowledge, suitable for teaching and therefore used in the Order’s schools until the early 17th century.

Ramon, on the other hand, in his work Arbor scientiae, uses the suggestive image of the tree as a model of the rational structure of the world, in an extraordinary attempt to create a universal method and science to understand the laws governing the entire reality.

Modern encyclopedias

During the Renaissance period – as evidenced by some of the texts on display – encyclopedism underwent a first transformation and, thanks to the progressive refinement of the art of printing, presented itself in a rich guise of new graphic and illustrative feats, as well demonstrated by the works of Gregor Reisch, Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, and Pietro Gregorio Tholosano.

The first Italian encyclopedist: Fra Vincenzo Coronelli

On display here is the Universal Sacred-Profane Library of the Conventual Minor Friar Vincenzo Coronelli, which, although incomplete, can be considered the first great encyclopedia in the Italian language. The work aimed to provide people with basic, useful, and updated information in various disciplines.

Coronelli was a geographer, scientist, historian, encyclopedist, far-sighted publisher, as well as a map designer and skilled globe maker. It is no coincidence that he is considered a pinnacle figure of Franciscan encyclopedism.