Paulinus Minorita (aka Paolino Veneto)

• parsed from wikipedia

Paulinus Minorita (aka Paolino Veneto), was born between 1270 and 1274 CE, possibly in Venice. By 1293 he had joined the Franciscan convent Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. At various times in his life, he was a lecturer in theology, an inquisitor, a diplomatic representative for the Republic of Venice and the Papacy, a bishop, and a member of the royal council of King Robert of Naples. He was also a geographer and writer authoring numerous texts and maps. Among his writings are three universal chronicles which were written between 1306 and 1331. They are

• Notabilium historiarum Epithoma ('epitome of notable histories') which runs from "Creation" to the death of the Emperor Henry VII in 1313. It was completed before 1316 and was based on Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum historiale. It is preserved in four 14th-century manuscripts, all now in Florence.


• Compendium or Chronologia magna ('great chronology') covers the same period as the Epithoma with the addition of a section on Outremer, a mappa mundi and a map of the Holy Land. It was completed between 1321 and 1323, but updated later. It survives in both long and short versions in five manuscripts, including what is probably an autograph, Biblioteca Marciana MS lat. 399.


• The Satirica rerum gestarum ('satyricon of the deeds of the world') which runs from "Creation" to 1320. It is divided into 238 chapters. Paolino finished working on it after his election as bishop in 1324. It differs from the others by the inclusion of some saints' lives, notably that of Francis of Assisi, and an account of Pietro da Macerata and Pietro da Fossombrone, founders of the Fraticelli, whom Paolino regarded as heretics. It is preserved in four 14th-century and five 15th-century manuscripts at least one of which is in the Vatican Library (Vat. lat. 1960)

A meeting with Marino Sanuto the Elder spurred Paulino to expand his Epithoma, which resulted in the Compendium and Satirica. Paulino reviewed Marino Sanuto's Liber secretorum Fidelium Crucis which led to a correspondence between the two and a broadening of Paolino's geographical scope.

A complete edition of any of the chronicles does not exist, owing in part to the complexity of the manuscripts, which are replete with large tables. Certain excerpts have been extracted and published separately. Paolino was widely used as a source in the 14th and 15th centuries however The Epithoma and Satirica are not highly valued today for their historical information. The Compendium, however, does contain some valuable information on early Franciscan history. Paulino's contemporary, Andrea Dandolo, cites the Satirica in his Chronica per extensum descripta. Paulino died on 22 June 1344.