This entry reconstructs the profile and significance of the lost Quasi stella matutina, an early “curial” legend of Francis of Assisi, probably composed shortly after Thomas of Celano’s Vita beati Francisci by the papal notary Giovanni de Campania (de Ceprano). It explains the scriptural incipit (Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 50:6) and traces the text’s afterlife through scattered fragments—especially nine Dominican liturgical readings—while arguing that the work likely disappeared after the Franciscan general chapter of Paris (1266). The surviving material reveals a strongly Roman-Curia perspective centered on Gregory IX and on the ecclesiological framing of Francis’s mission in defense/renewal of the Church.
Spataro, A., Voce "Quasi stella matutina", in Francesco d’Assisi. Enciclopedia Francescana, Treccani Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Roma 2025: 346-348 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/328658]
Quasi stella matutina
Spataro, Alberto
Primo
2025
Abstract
This entry reconstructs the profile and significance of the lost Quasi stella matutina, an early “curial” legend of Francis of Assisi, probably composed shortly after Thomas of Celano’s Vita beati Francisci by the papal notary Giovanni de Campania (de Ceprano). It explains the scriptural incipit (Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 50:6) and traces the text’s afterlife through scattered fragments—especially nine Dominican liturgical readings—while arguing that the work likely disappeared after the Franciscan general chapter of Paris (1266). The surviving material reveals a strongly Roman-Curia perspective centered on Gregory IX and on the ecclesiological framing of Francis’s mission in defense/renewal of the Church.
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