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486 Antonio Mursia

extensively during his sermocinal activity conducted from the first
twenty-five years of the fifteenth century, especially in the Catalan-
Aragonese dominions . The sermons of Bernardine and his disciples,
14
whose contents were sensitive to social moral issues, were distin-
guished for being agile, picturesque, incisive and with familiar and at
times dramatic accents. It was because of this, that the faithful people
thronged the public squares, becoming impassioned, disturbed and
moved as they listened to the sermons delivered by the observants.
Their sermons were not configured as a mere exercise in asceticism
and humility: they sought, rather, to restore to the poor and the mar-
ginalized the hope of a better life, arousing in the wealthy classes
forms of generosity, which often, however, also stemmed from the mys-
tery of the afterlife and the fears that hell instilled .
15
Between 1417 and 1424, several cities in northern Italy were visited
by Bernardine and Matthew’s . This was reported by James della
16
Marca, one of the closest collaborators of the Sienese friar, who did
not hesitate to reveal that the Agrigento had been his spiritual father .
17
It appears, however, still impossible at the present time to be able to
determine whether the two Franciscans operated alongside each other
during these seven years or whether, instead, they, by mutual agree-
ment, conducted their missions separately. The fact remains that both
Bernardine and Matthew conducted their sermocinal activities in the
same cities, among which Orzinuovi, Ostiglia, Piacenza, and Verona
are mentioned . The two observants were really tied by the themes
18
exposed in their sermons. They appeared to be committed, in fact, to
the pacification of opposing city consortiums and to the condemnation
of a number of practices deemed anti-social, which undermined the
building of the ideal political community . Thus, Matthew in Verona
19

14 Matthew of Agrigento was among the first disciples of Bernardine of Siena as
noted in the Chronica Nicolai Glassberger, Ad Claras Aquas, Quaracchi 1887, p. 396.
15 Reflections along these lines can be found in A. Ghinato, La predicazione
francescana nella vita religiosa e sociale del Quattrocento, «Picenum Seraphicum»
10 (1973), pp. 24-94, and in S. Tramontana, Gli osservanti a Messina. Qualche
riflessione sulla fondazione di un convento e di una chiesa nel secolo XV, «Mediter-
ranea. Ricerche storiche», 7 (2010), pp. 55-86.
16 M. Sensi, Osservanza francescana cit., p. 1012.
17 Monteprandone, Municipal Historical Archives, codex 46, c. 72v. Cf. also, S.
Iacobus de Marchia, Sermones domenicales, IV, a cura di R. Lioi, Biblioteca Fran-
cescana, Falconara 1982, p. 32.
18 For this, cf. again M. Sensi, Osservanza francescana cit., p. 1012. It is also
known that Matthew preached in Orzinuovi, near Brescia (Bvn, MS 18.11.3 c.
180r); in Ostiglia, near Mantua (Bvn, MS 18.11.3, c. 185r); in Piacenza (L. Oliger,
S. Bernardino e l’introduzione dell’Osservanza a Piacenza, «Bullettino di Studi Ber-
nardiniani», 2 (1936), pp. 265-280), and in Verona (B. Matthaei Agrigentini OFM.,
Sermones varii cit., p. 143).
19 Cf. P. Evangelisti, Fede, mercato, comunità cit., pp. 633-634.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XX - Dicembre 2023
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)