Cavalca - Vitas patrum, non dopo il 1474 - 2003716

Domenico Cavalca (

Vicopisano Vicopisano is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pisa in the Italian region Tuscany, located about west of Florence and about east of Pisa. It occupies the former valley of the Arno River (which now flows some km southwards), bounde ...

, c. 1270 –

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ci ...

, October 1342) was an Italian writer. He was a friar of the

Dominican order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

and lived a life, mostly spent in the monastery of Santa Caterina, of irreproachable morals, characterized by attention to the poor and the sick. Cavalca dedicated much time and care to nunneries in the province of Pisa and his activity led to the foundation in 1342, just before his death, of the Dominican nunnery of Santa Marta (today no longer existing) in Pisa. The works of Cavalca, of religious or

ascetic Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

subject, are in part original, in part derived from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

texts. His treatises are strongly influenced by ''Summae virtutum ac vitiorum'', a treatise written in the thirteenth century by the French Dominican William Perault. Cavalca became a very famous writer and in the following centuries many works were attributed to him, but in many cases these were erroneous attributions.

Works

*''Vite dei santi Padri''. Translation into the vernacular of the '' Vitae Patrum'' *''Dialogo di San Gregorio''. Translation into the vernacular of the ''Dialogues'' of

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

*''Atti degli Apostoli''. Translation into the vernacular of the

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its messag ...

*''Epistola di San Girolamo a Eustochio''. Translation into the vernacular of a letter of

Saint Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...

Eustochium Eustochium (c. 368 – September 28, 419 or 420), born ''Eustochium Julia'' at Rome, is also venerated as a saint and was an early Desert Mother. Eustochium was the daughter of Paula of Rome and the third of four daughters of the Roman Senator ...

*''Specchio di Croce''. A treatise inspired by the image of Christ on the cross, with many reflections on the passages of the four

Four Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

about the Passion *''Medicina del cuore ovvero trattato della Pazienza''. A collection of two treatises dedicated to wrath and patience *''Specchio dei peccati'' (''The mirror of sins''), 1333. A treatise with reflections on confession and penitence *''Pungilingua''. A treatrise on the dangers of the misuse of the language *''Frutti della lingua''. A treatise on preaching *''Disciplina degli spirituali''. A treatise about common wrong attitudes of people devoted to spiritual life *''Trattato delle trenta stoltizie''. A treatise about the errors made in the fight against the temptations of the evil *''Esposizione del Simbolo degli Apostoli''.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavalca, Domenico 13th-century births 1342 deaths Italian male writers 14th-century Italian writers People from the Province of Pisa