Il Medioevo latino nello specchio di Francesco d’Assisi

Abstract

The Latin Middle Ages hosted three great revolutions that proved decisive in shaping European self-consciousness: the first consisted in separating political power from religious power, the second legitimized progressive historical fragmentation, recognizing the value of experiences that had appeared marginal, and the third rendered conceivable rights and the possibility of freedom for all people regardless of intellectual or social prerequisites. This shift was able to occur in efforts to develop (on multiple levels, including doctrinal and literary) a particular figure of god, the Christian god, that took on increasingly degrees of self-awareness up to the constitution of the icon of Pieta, an image (Christ laying in his mother’s arms) of god stepping aside out of love for humankind. The paper succinctly outlines this historiographical hypothesis with particular reference to the works of Gregory the Great and Francis of Assisi.