Eleonora Lombardo
I am a scholar on Medieval Religious Communication, specialised on Medieval sermon studies. My main projects are: the study and edition of Medieval Latin sermons on Saint Anthony of Padua / Lisbon; the study and edition of Peter of Spain's OP sermons and a study on communication on corporeality through sermons in the middle ages. My research focuses on Medieval preaching and sermons, Mendicant orders, Medieval antiheretical struggle, history of mentality, corporeality and well-being. I use a strong interdisciplinary approach, passing through history, philosophy, theology and history of art. My passions are studying and editing unpublished materials, dealing with innovative approaches.
Supervisors: Maria Teresa Dolso, José Francisco Preto Meirinhos, Louis Carlos Amaral, Antonio Rigon, and Donato Gallo
Supervisors: Maria Teresa Dolso, José Francisco Preto Meirinhos, Louis Carlos Amaral, Antonio Rigon, and Donato Gallo
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Papers by Eleonora Lombardo
O seminário vai propor uma apresentação das mutações da figura de santo António nas lendas hagiográficas e sobretudo nos sermões, com algumas referências as imagens. A primeira parte vai apresentar o santo como estava narrado durante os séculos XIII e XIV, quando a sua figura estava mais ligada a devoção culta e mais interna a Ordem dos frades menores. A segunda parte vai propor reflexões sobre a ultima parte da Idade Media, quando Santo António se tornou no santo popular e dos milagres graças sobretudo a incidência dos grandes pregadores da Observância franciscana.
Even if "Francisci emulus", Anthony's perfection arrives as the end of a process chosen by the saint growing in a selected group of virtues.
Moving from the usual catalogue of virtues, not all of them pertain to saint Anthony. Preachers and hagiographers, infact, focus basically on a small selection: humility, poverty, charity and, above all, wisdom in both its meanings of "doctrina" and "scientia". Having a deeper look to the two groups of sources, however, it's clear that some topics pertain mostly to preachers. Although trying to introduce new lectures of saint Anthony's figure as it was elaborated by preachers, hagiographers do not stress them as much as preachers do.
Having a deeper look to virtues, it's clear that Anthony acts in perfect charity, but this virtue is not often recalled either in hagiography either in preaching.
Both to preachers and hagiographers three virtues dominated Anthony's experience and guided him to holiness: wisdom, humility and poverty.
Wisdom is essentially the saint's main virtue and writers realaborate it several times, to give it both meanings of knowledge and preaching. According to an Order more and more involved in theological debates and academical controversies, however, at the beginning of the XIV century the episodes connected to contemplation as a part of Anthony's gaining wisdom, are gradually reduced in space and importance in lives, while mainly disappear in sermons in favour of his being a preacher.
Another important change is made when medieval authors wrote about humility. More important in hagiography than in sermons, this virtue is treated as a bridge, and it can be related both to wisdom and to poverty. It's also related to the Franciscan experience in the saint's life, so that this virtue stands up as the real Franciscan virtue, the one readers and listeners should take care if they really want to follow the Rule and gain Heaven.
The last virtue in this paper is poverty. This virtue is basically found in sermons, as hagiographers do not stress it. Following them, infact, Anthony was poor just as a conseguence of his becoming a Francis' follower. Moreover, in the best known of them, the Vita Secunda and the Officium Rythmicum, the references to his poverty are few and accidental. The theme of Anthony's poverty becomes more and more popular from the very end of the 13th century in sermons and it gains the role of second virtue in Anthony's being saint. By that time, in sermons references to his humility decrease while several preachers explain some key episodes of Anthony's life as a consequence of his being poor.
Finally, a systematical comparison among sermons and hagiography shows the increasing importance of Anthony as a model for Franciscan friars acting in the Church. The adaptability of his image to the situations the Order had to face at the very end of the XIII and the first half of the XIV century decreed the luck of Anthony until the time of the plague, when new models of holiness definitely stole him the scene.
"O Seminário Internacional “Ideias em movimento. Seminário de estudo sobre as circulações artísticas, sociais e culturais na Baixa Idade Média (secs. XIII-XV)” está directamente ligado aos projetos de pós-doutoramento de Maria Alessandra Bilotta (“Portuguese juridical manuscripts production and illumination between 14th and 15th centuries and theirs connections with manuscripts production and illumination in the French “Midi” (specially Toulouse, Avignon and Montpellier) and in the North-Mediterranean regions (Italy and Cataluña)” e de Eleonora Lombardo («Sermons on saint Anthony of Lisbon: between hagiography and orality (about 1232-1350)», que agora será alargado até ao final do século XV.
O encontro organizado pelo grupo de investigação “Construir a História” em colaboração com o grupo de investigação “Imagens e textos medievais” tem como objetivo debater os movimentos de pessoas, produtos e padrões culturais, artísticos e religiosos nos séculos entre XIII e XV tanto do ponto de vista histórico-religioso como artístico."