First edition of the most important work by Ubertino da Casale (1259-1330). As the leading exponent of the rigorous Franciscan Spiritual movement, Ubertino da Casale dedicated this work to the defense of Christ's poverty, criticizing those (including popes) who adopted a more permissive interpretation of the Rule of Saint Francis. The work was highly influential; Ubertino appears in Dante's Divine Comedy and, more recently, in Eco's novel The Name of the Rose . Dante Alighieri cites him in Paradise through the words of Saint Bonaventure, comparing him to Matthew of Acquasparta as a symbol of the two extremes that had overwhelmed the Franciscan Order: on the one hand, the indulgence and laxity of the conventual community, on the other, the excessive rigor and tendency toward intransigence of the Spiritual Friars. Umberto Eco included him among the characters in his historical novel (1980), presenting him as an elderly monk who survived the battles of the Spirituals and witnessed a lost ideal of purity. The 1986 film version directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, in which the role was played by William Hickey, helped to establish his image as an uncompromising and prophetic mystic in the modern imagination.

Goff U55; HC 4551*; IGI 10018; Pr 4816; BMC V 361; BSB-Ink U-67; GW M48799.