Jacopone lived from 1230, four years after the death of St. Francis, until 1306, when Dante Alighieri was writing the Divine Comedy. The poet and mystic of the Franciscan ideal, Jacopone da Todi was a major figure in European culture of the 13th Century, and his relevance for spiritual seekers continues today.
As a man who followed a spiritual compass without conforming to the dictates of the day, Jacopone aroused the ire of church leaders and suffered persecution. His record has endured distortions for centuries, limiting access to the inspiration of his life and work.
That is until now.
We are on a journey to strip away the distortions so that the light of this medieval mystic can finally shine through.
Winter Newsletter
December 2024
Volume 2 | Issue 2
Welcome to the latest edition of our Newsletter! In this edition we begin a new and groundbreaking series on 'The True Story of Jacopone da Todi', extending over seven centuries; we look at two new books that will appeal to anyone who is interested in Jacopone; and in the lead-up to Christmas, we present a laude of Jacopone that has been described as an “outburst of Christmas joy”.
To read our previous newsletters visit our archive here.
Stories from Todi
Of Stones and Love
“Trenta anni (thirty years)”. That was Daniele’s answer to my question, “How long have you and Piero worked together?”
I was stunned! I would have guessed Daniele to be 34. He moves brick and stone and buckets of mortar like a young man in his prime. Wherever you find Piero – a person with some of the best manners and kindest smiles I have ever encountered – there you find Daniele. If there are two men in the whole of Italy with a more robust, energetic, and positive disposition toward their work than Piero and Daniele, you will be hard pressed to find them.
Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater Dolorosa: A Journey Through Seven Centuries of Music
Our friend Hannie van Osnabrugge has, for almost 30 years, been running the wonderful Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. As the name implies, this is the definitive source of information on the Stabat Mater and particularly on the huge number of musical versions and recordings, through many centuries.
Now Hannie has produced a book, Stabat Mater Dolorosa – A Journey Through Seven Centuries of Music.
The Real Jacopone
Admired, Cancelled, Rediscovered: The true story of Jacopone da Todi, c1270-2024. Part 1.
This is the story of Jacopone, not just in his lifetime but over the seven centuries since his death. We call it the ‘true story’ of Jacopone because it is based on documented facts (nothing invented), including a lot of forgotten or suppressed information. In some ways it’s like reconstructing a jigsaw, having found all the missing pieces.
Our story is divided into three periods titled Admired (c1270-1590), Cancelled (c1590-1900) and Rediscovered (1900-2024).
Book Review
Iacopone da Todi : The Power of Mysticism and the Originality of Franciscan Poetry
We are pleased to present in this issue of the Newsletter an extraordinary book, published in English this year (2024) by Brill Publishers of Leiden and Boston. The book is edited by two eminent scholars, Matteo Leonardi, Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Turin and Alessandro Vettori, Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, who conclude their Introduction as follows:
Laudi
Laude LXIV. O novo canto/A new song
Clement A. Miles, in his book Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (1912) wrote:
Not till the close of the thirteenth century do we meet with any vernacular Christmas poetry of importance ... The first real outburst of Christmas joy in a popular tongue is found in Italy, in the poems of that strange “minstrel of the Lord,” the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi…
An “outburst of Christmas joy” perfectly describes this laude,…
Other News
La Casa Dipinta: A work of art in progress
One of the many links between Todi and Ireland is La Casa Dipinta (‘the painted house’), the house where the Irish artist Brian O’Doherty and his wife, art historian Barbara Novak, lived in Todi for several decades from 1975. Over many years O’Doherty turned the entire house into an artwork, covering most surfaces with unique wall paintings and distinctive rope drawing installations. It is now one of the most popular attractions for visitors to Todi.
Dana K. Greene 1942 – 2023
We were deeply saddened to lose Dana Greene at the end of 2023. We first encountered Dana in 2018, in planning the International Conference for the 100th anniversary of Evelyn Underhill’s 1919 biography of Jacopone. Ambitiously, we wanted to have the world’s greatest living expert on Evelyn Underhill as a speaker at our conference. Only a little research was needed to identify that person as the American scholar, Dana Greene.
Podcast
Claudio Peri has produced a podcast series reviewing various aspects of the life, work and mysticism of Jacopone da Todi. In each issue of this newsletter, we will present two episodes of this podcast, recorded both in Italian and in English.
Episode 9:
The memory of Jacopone / La memoria di jacopone
The story we have been telling is not complete if we don’t know what happened to the memory of Jacopone after his death.
Resources
Database now published online
Some years ago we began a systematic search for all publications dedicated to Jacopone produced since the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of 2020, we had collected more than 1000 references. These are now available in a searchable database here.