The Manuscript Tradition of the Chronicle of the Twenty-Four Generals of the Order of Friars Minor – New Manuscript Additions

Abstract

The article presents the state of research on the Franciscan Chronicle of the Twenty-Four Generals, composed during the second half of the fourteenth century by the Minister General of Aquitaine Arnald of Sarrano. The author pays particular attention the textual tradition, supplementing the information concerning the sixteen medieval copies of the chronicle hitherto discussed in the historical literature, with the presentation of further two manuscripts, both of which are of Polish provenance. These manuscripts, preserved at the Polish National Library in Warsaw (call nos.: BOZ 1114 and BN 8084), came into being towards the end of the fifteenth century, respectively in the Observantist monasteries of Koło and Sambor. A complete codicological description is furnished with analyses of text variations, which demonstrate that both the copies in question belong to the so called „northern” group, composed chiefly of manuscripts from Halle, Lviv, Vienna, and the copy preserved in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Strasbourg, but executed in Cracow. The presented evidence also demonstrates that the chronicle was popular among the Observantists, who in Poland were known as the Bernardines.