[RHYMED VITA OF SAINT FRANCIS – THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND THE "POEMA SACRO"] Il seraffico San Francesco di Fra Giacomo Garibi da Porto Mauritio... [Il seraffico San Francesco di Fra Giacomo Garibi da Porto Mauritio...].
Genoa: Per gli Heredi de Girol. Bartoli, 1595. Small octavo (14.7 × 9.7 cm). Contemporary full limp vellum with title to spine, upper, and lower edge; [16], 470, [40] pp. Woodcut vignette to title depicting the saint receiving the stigmata; three additional small illustrations, one of which repeats the title vignette; printer's device to last leaf. Somewhat later (late seventeenth or eighteenth century) marginalia in brown ink and a hand-written index on two pp. (initial blank leaf). Some wear and creasing to boards and front pastedown; original ties lacking save for one partial remnant; overall still about very good. Item #55121
First and only edition of this rhymed Italian vita in twenty cantos, apparently the earliest "poema sacro" of several written about Saint Francis of Assisi after the Council of Trent. “Il seraffico San Francesco” is also considered one of the earliest examples of the hagiographic heroic epic. Giacomo Garibaldi adhered strictly to St. Bonaventure’s “Legenda Maior,” which was authoritative among the Franciscans. The narrative unfolds simply and in chronological order. In terms of literary history, the work stands as a marker alongside Giovanni Giorgini’s “Il Mondo nuovo,” the first epic poem in the Italian language, published at the same time, which is dedicated to the discovery and conquest of America. Both the discovery of America and the life of St. Francis evolve from sober historical writing in verse into epic poetry. (Cf. Artico, Tancredi, Anatomia dell’epica da Tasso a Graziani. Dissertation, Università degli Studi di Padova, 2016.)
The volume also contains a small portrait showing the saint receiving the stigmata and one other small image depicting the saint; a song; a number of sonnets; a dedicatory poem to and portrait of Francesco Gonzaga; the rhymed rule of the order; and a lengthy rhymed treatise in tercets titled "Apparitioni et miracoli di S. Francesco dopo la sua morte." The author was a Franciscan of the Order of Friars Minor who dedicated this work to Francesco Gonzaga (died 1620), Minister General of the Order from 1579 and later Bishop of Mantua, as which he is depicted on p. [504]. Gonzaga was strongly in favor of Counter-Reformation ideals and sought to refashion the the order's statutes in accordance with the teachings of the Council of Trent.
Little is known about Giacomo (latin: Jacobus) Garibi (sometimes Garibbi), of Porto Maurizio in Liguria. It has been conjectured that he is also known as Jacobus de Portu, another author of devotional works, including "Lachrime della Madonna" (1588) and "Filomena di S. Bonauentura, ridotta in terza rima" (1585). Compared, for instance, to the rhymed vita by Lucrezia Marinella (Vita del serafico et glorioso S. Francesco, 1597), Garibi's work is a lesser known tribute to St. Francis, but possibly the first instance of a trend that developed in post-Tridentine Italian literary and devotional life: the fusion of the epic poem with religious content or saints' lives in the "poema sarco" (sacred epic). In 1618, Agostino Gallucci, another Franciscan friar, would publish his likewise rhymed "San Francesco ouero Gierusalemme celeste", with the term "poema sacro" explicitly used in the subtitle.
Rare. As of April 2026, KVK, OCLC show one imperfect copy in North America, as well as copies at the French and Spanish National Libraries.
Price: €3,500.00