La Finalis conclusio di Tommaso da Celano. Motivi e modelli classici nell’epilogo del Tractatus de miraculis.

This essay focuses on Thomas of Celano, Francis’s first biographer and the Order’s official historian, his considerable ability as a writer and his extensive knowledge of the classical and medieval literary tradition. The analysis of the Finalis conclusio, the brief and elaborate epilogue to his Tractatus de miraculis, reveals a dense and complex intertextuality: Thomas used motifs and words drawn from Julianus Pomerius’ treatise De vita contemplativa (which circulated widely in the Middle Ages), from St. Jerome’s prologues to the books of the Bible, and even from Horace’s first epistle. This reuse of themes and words make it possible to shed more light on the Finalis conclusio and on its significance in Thomas’s personal life and the entire corpus of his hagiographic writings.