List #9B: Processus Documents 

 

           A basic list of surviving processus documents was assembled by André.Vauchez for his dissertation on La sainteté en Occident aux derniers siècles du Moyen Age: D’après les procès de canonisation et les documents hagiographiques. Bibliothèque des Ecoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 241. Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 1988. Pp. 655-665.  This work was Englished as Sainthood in the later Middle Ages, translated by Jean Birrell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). When Vauchez conducted his research, many of these obscure documents were available only in manuscript or in partial editions. Vauchez's impressive success brought new attention to processus documents, inspiring scholars to publish many of the neglected ones.  An updating of Vauchez's inventory is a desiderata.  The more recent work includes:

 

[Ambrogio da Massa] Pellegrini, L.  "Negotium Imperfectum: Il processo per la canonizzazione di Ambrogio da Massa (O.M., Orvieto 1240)."  Storia e società 17 (1994): 253-78.   

 

[Bernardino da Siena] Il processo di canonizzazione di Bernardino da Siena (1445-1450. Analecta Francescana n.s.16.  Documenta et Studia 4. Grottaferratta: Frati Editori di Quaracchi—Fondazione Collegia S. Bonaventure, 2009.

 

[Clare of Assisi.]  The processus survives in Latin in fragments, in volgare in a 16th-century version. Apparently much of what is known can be found in Marco Guida, Una leggenda in cerca d’autore: La Vita di Santa Chiara d’Assisi. Subsidia Hgaiographica 90. Brussels: Bollandistes, 2010, a study which decisively attributes BHL 1815 to Thomas of Celano, but which tangentially deals with the processus texts used in that vita.

 

[Clare of Monte Falco] Ottornio Pietro Alberti, "Il Processo Apostolico di Chiara da Montefalco."  In La Spiritualità di S. Chiara da Montefalco: Atti del I Convegno di Studio, Montefalco, 8-10 agosto 1985,  edited by Silvestro Nessi.  Centro di Spiritualità agostiniana e clariana Publlicazioni 1.  Montefalco:  Monastero S. Chiara, 1986.  Pp. 7-35. 

 

[Galganus]  R. Arbesmann, "The Three Earliest Vitae of St Galganus." In Didascaliae: Studies in Honour of Anselm M. Albareda. Edited by Silvio Prete. New York, 1961, 1-38. The acta are edited by F. Schneider, "Die Einsiedler Galgan von Chiusdino und die Anfänge von San Galgano," Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 17 (1914-24): 61-77.

 

[Elizabeth of Hungary]  Lori Pieper, author of a 2007 biography, claims to be working on a translation of the processus materials.

 

[Hildegard] Ch. Munier. La Vie de Ste Hildegard de Bingen et les actes de l'enquête en vue de sa canonisation.  Introduction, traduction, commentaire et tables.  Sagesses chrétiennes.  Paris: CERF, 2000. 221pp.

 

[John the Good] Mario Mattei. Il processo di canonizzazione di Fra Giovanni Bono (1251-1253/1254, fondatore dell’Ordine degli Eremiti. Fontes Historiae Ordinis Sancti Augustini, ns 4. Rome Istitutum historicum Augustinianum, 2002. 49 miracles in vita, 48 post mortem. The same author published a Vita Di Giovanni Bono (Cesena: Ponte Vecchio, 2004 ).

 

[Louis IX]  Carolus-Barr‚ Louis. Le procès de canonisation de Saint Louis (1272-1297):  Essai de reconstitution.  Edited by Henri Platelle.  Collection de l'École française de Rome 195. Rome: ÉFR, 1994. [N.B.  In this posthumous work, with notes often incomplete, the relevant documents appear only in French translation.]

 

[Louis IX].  An inquest was taken between May of 1282 and March of 1283, interviewing 330 witnesses to 63 posthumous miracles.  Only a fragment of this survives:  see H-François Delaborde, "Fragments de l'enquête fait à Saint-Denis en 1282 en vue de la canonisation de Saint Louis," Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile de France 23 (1896);  Louis Carolus-Barré, Le procès de canonisation de Saint-Louis (1272-1297):  Essai de reconstitution.  Rome: ÉFR, 1994.  There is a summary of the evidence of the inquest made by Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, ca. 303, which Sharon Farmer, in AHR 103 (1998): 350-51 claims to have compared to the fragments that survive and found quite accurate. These are published in Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Confesseur de la Reine Marguerite,  Les miracles de Saint Louis, edited by Percival B. Fay.  Classiques Les francais du Moyen Âge 70.  Paris:  Honoré Champion, 1931.

 

[Nicolas of Tolentino]  Il processo per la canonizzazione di S. Nicola da Tolentino.  Edited by Nicola Occhioni. Collection de l'École française de Rome 74.  Rome:  Padri Agostiniani di Tolentino and École française de Rome, 1984.

 

[Vincent Ferrer] Laura A. Smoller, "Miracle, Memory, and Meaning in the Canonization of Vincent Ferrer, 1453-1454."  Speculum 73 (1998): 429-54.  P. 429n lists MSS and editions.                                             

 

 

General Studies

 

Garcia y Garcia, Antonio.  “A Propos de la canonisation des saints au XIIe siècle.”  Revue de droit canonique 18 (1968): 3-15.

 

Katajala-Peltomea, Sari. Gender, Miracles, and Daily Life: The Evidence of Fourteenth-Century Canonization Processes. Turnhout: Brepols, 2009..

 

Toynbee, Margaret R.  St. Louis of Toulouse and the Process of Canonization in the Fourteenth Century.  Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1929. [a case study approached with a broad perspective].

 

Vauchez, André.  "Les représentations de la sainteté d'après les procès de canonisation médiévaux (XIIIe-XVe siècles)."  In Convegno internazionale:  Agiografia nell'occidente cristiano secoli XIII-XV (Roma, 1-2 marzo 1979).  Atti dei convegni lincei 48.  Rome:  Accademia nazionale dei lincei, 1980.  Pp. 31-43.  

 

Vauchez, André, "L'influence des modèles hagiographiques sur les représentations de la sainteté, dans les procès de canonisation (XIIIe-XVe siècle."  Hagiographie, cultures, et sociétés, IVe-XIIe siècles:  Actes du Colloque organisé à Nanterre et à Paris (2-5 mai 1979), edited by the Centre de recherches sur l'antiquité tardive et le haut moyen âge, Université de Paris X.  Paris:  Etudes augustiniennes, 1981. Pp. 585-96.

 

 Some additional bibliography of works of social history based upon canonization inquests is given by Sharon Farmer, "Down and Out and Female in Thirteenth-Century Partis," American Historical Review 103 (1998): 345-72 (esp. 350n); and in Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris: Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.