The Other Sister Research Group met on March 6th to discuss the book by Jacques Dalarun, Sean Field and Valerio Cappozzo, A Female Apostle in Medieval Italy: The Life of Clare of Rimini (University of Pennsylvania, 2022), and its use in the classroom. The group read the introduction, chapter 6, “The Shadow of Heresy” and chapter 11, “The Power of Images.”
Meghan Lescault acted as the moderator of the session. She is a PhD Candidate working on secular canonesses in Nivelles during the medieval and early modern period.
Jacques Dalarun is a medieval historian, member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, and corresponding fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. A specialist in medieval sanctity from the 11th to the 14th century, he has devoted numerous studies to Francis and Clare of Assisi and the Franciscan movement. His English publications include The Misadventure of Francis of Assisi. Toward a Historical Use of the Franciscan Legends (2002); Robert of Arbrissel : Sex, Sin, and Salvation in the Middle Ages (2006); Francis of Assisi and the Feminine (2006); Francis of Assisi and Power (2007); The Rediscovered Life of St. Francis of Assisi (2016); To Govern is to Serve : An Essay on Medieval Democracy (2023)
Sean Field is a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and a correspondent étranger of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. His latest book, tentatively titled Framing Female Sanctity: Three Case Studies on Medieval Authorship and Gender, will be published by Cornell University Press in 2027.
Valerio Cappozzo is Associate Professor of Modern Languages at The University of Mississippi. His research focuses on dream interpretation in the Middle Ages, with numerous publications including monographs, translations, transcriptions, and scholarly articles. He is the author of Medieval Dream Dictionary (Olschki, 2018) and the editor of Dreambooks in the Middle Ages: A Global Perspective (Brill, 2026).
The meeting started with Jacques Dalarun thanking the organizers of The Other Sister. He shared that while editing Clare’s life, he, Valerio, and Sean wished to avoid the disappointment sometimes felt when reading such editions, in which the format is not conducive to the reader’s enjoyment or interest. In their text, the chapters begin with a faithful translation of the source in English, followed immediately with a commentary on each section. This format was received extremely positively. The Female Apostle explores Clare’s life but also introduces the reader to the complexity of life in medieval Italian cities more generally by providing contextual details to the important religious moment of the crackdown on Franciscans, and the shift from Latin to Italian as the primary written language. The author, Jacques states, who was a Friar minor, fell under the spell of the penitent, and ended up writing with much realism. We know this because he writes what he should not, recounting moments when Clare did not act within the expectations of holiness. Clare of Rimini was never canonized, and her story was largely lost to time until Jacques, Sean, and Valerio brought her story to life.
Next, the group heard from Valerio Cappozzo. He pointed out that the text can be used in many different types of courses, and he shared that he taught a course with it recently. For the students in that course, the descriptive nature of the vita helped bring medieval Italy to life by highlighting (with other sources he also used) sounds, smells, tastes, and real experiences and struggles. As an Italian, he was surprised by the language of the text –more poetic than liturgical, a very fluid, harmonious, and refined Italian. The author of the hagiography writes in prose before Bocaccio, and even before Dante who elevated Italian to prose in The Divine Poetry. Valerio read some lines to the group in the original Italian, illustrating the beautiful and melodic nature of the vita. Its language is extremely sophisticated and light, capable of expressing complex imagery and religious experience. He also highlighted the structured nature of the text, which indicated that it was destined for widespread circulation. The image of Clare rooting around with her head in the dirt is particularly striking if we connect it with a riddle written by a monk from the eighth or ninth century that likens the hand that writes to agricultural work. Another striking element is the connection between literature and visual art, which inspired many contemporary writers. He explained that the cover of the book reflects the visual art which was highly connected to literature and which depicts Clare herself. Her life draws from both art and literature, with the two powerful forces of language and image coming together to give life to the story. The text is important for specialists, but also for teaching, he said. The text shows Clare’s struggle between her own richness of spirit and the moral poverty of the political world around her.
Then, Sean Field stated that his colleagues gave thorough comments, and he only wanted to add two points. First, he shared the joy of working collaboratively, with Jacques Dalarun, keen to make the text available to students in a new and innovative format, and Valerio, who made sure of the faithfulness of the translation. It was mostly carried out during the covid years, with tireless online correspondence. The two chapters which they shared with the group were also perhaps the two which they were most invested in, one concerning heresy (Chapter 6) and the other images and visions (Chapter 11).
His second point was that Clare is perhaps the perfect figure to represent “The Other Sister.” She was married twice, underwent a religious conversion, lived in a cell for a time, and then slowly built up her community, facing significant challenges along the way. She did not have a rule, but rather led the community by her charisma and her vita was there to guide them after her death.
Finally, Mary Doyno, one of The Other Sister organizers, expressed her excitement at the opportunity to discuss her uses of the book in the classroom. The text was extremely helpful in both medieval history survey courses and advanced seminars. It could serve as a standalone text for one or two weeks of a course, to speak about later medieval religious life, or be paired with more traditional sources on Francis of Assisi to illustrate the rise and importance of medicant orders. However, what works most effectively, she shared, was to read the text week after week throughout the semester. One can move from a narrow focus on the primary source to a broader perspective which facilitates the examination of historical and historiographical contexts. The authors did a great job of explaining what previous scholars have said and what has changed in historiography. She pointed out that it is presented in such an accessible way that it makes teaching more seamless and easier for students to understand. Using the text, she can also show her students how a primary source can be interpreted and then ask them to do the same with other primary sources. She has also found it useful in more advanced seminars, in which she asks fewer students (about 15) to take on a chapter or two each, and present that chapter to the seminar. If the students can do that – explain what is going on in the source and what the scholars have done with it – they understand what they are being asked to accomplish in the class as well. She expressed sincere gratitude to have the opportunity to teach with the text.
Jacques responded to Mary that he has been incredibly impressed throughout his career by the works of American female scholars like Caroline Bynum. After also developing a love for vernacular Italian sources, like Clare’s life, he wondered why American historians and these amazing Italian sources had not yet met. He was grateful for the welcome from The Other Sister to see his two worlds come together.
After thanking the speakers, Meghan opened the meeting to questions.
The first comment came from Frances Kneupper, who shared that she is very excited to teach the text in her own courses and loves its format. She hopes for more translations that adopt their model of The Female Apostle. This is exactly the format that was adopted by the translators of the Life of Jeanne de Mailly, soon to be published (see our previous TOS meeting summary).
Next, Joseph Akl asked if the authors could speak more about the use of Italian rather than Latin in the text and what could have motivated the author in his choice. Valerio answered that they were all surprised to see the source written in vernacular Italian. He said that when reading the original text, he interpreted the use of Italian as representing the language of the future, to allow the message of Clare to be spread out to the surrounding regions. Whereas Latin was the possession of the church and not as accessible to the general population, Italian would allow her message to reach a much wider audience. Valerio also highlighted the vocalization of Italian words and the musicality of the language, which makes it more memorable and, thus, would help people remember Clare’s life and deeds.
Jacques added that after discovering the life of Clare in the 1980s, he wanted to be sure that it was the first life of a saint written in Italian as its original form. To find out if this was true, he co-edited an encyclopedia of hagiographical sources until 1500. For ten years, with other scholars, they listed about 1500 hagiographical sources written in Italian. At the end of this project, he was finally able to confirm his initial intuition that Clare’s life was indeed the oldest. But why was this the oldest hagiography written in Italian? Because she was a woman, he thinks, and as scholarly studies were forbidden for women in this time, the vernacular was more accessible to them. Women, he stated, were better able to express intimate feelings in Italian than Latin. The life was not only written to celebrate Clare’s memory, but also as a model for the female community created by Clare. The ability to understand its language was vital for her community, but also for those who wished to imitate the informal community founded by Clare. Italian is subtle and simple, making it a beautiful language. Jacques and Sean are now working on the life of another female saint, Isabelle of France, the first one written in France in French by a female author about a female saint. It is also a marvelous text because the use of French breaks away from the ‘weight’ of Latin. Each time there is a break against a linguistic domination, he explained, this first work must be a masterpiece.
Next, Mary asked to hear more about how the authors made decisions on historiographical issues – when to give attention to them and when to pull back – because it was done so effectively in the book. Sean answered that this emerged very naturally and pointed out the usefulness of the bibliography at the end for students to use. He said that it was very freeing to write directly for students, to imagine his own students reading the text, which meant they did not have to name all of the names or worry about egos and how people might react. Therefore, they pared down the historiography which made it perfect for students who did not need to be wrapped up in the niceties of academic discourse.
Next, Samantha Slaubaugh commented that she loved the liturgical elements mixed with iconographical images brought into Chapter 11 on Clare’s visions. She also asked them to speak more about the community after the death of Clare, and if the text illuminated their engagement with the church after her death. She also asked to clarify if the gospel was also translated into Italian.
Jacques responded that the link between painting and visions is very strong. He said that when an earthquake happened in Rimini the 20th century, some plaster fell from the ceiling of the church, and people discovered there were medieval frescoes beneath. While Jacques was studying there, he went to see the frescoes and found that they represented the vision of Clare. It is important to know that there is a book at the center of that vision, showing the gift of access to the bible, which was so important to Clare, even though it was forbidden for her to access it through the sacred text herself. The community was very informal at the beginning, and Clare herself was the rule; there was no formal rule. Her life, therefore, became the rule when she died. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the community was absorbed into the Poor Clares. In the life, the gospel quotations are in Italian. Some of these translations make their interpretation more personal, allowing them to be read as the kingdom of heaven being closer when there is personal effort to do penance (approximavit –> approximabit) This error in the Italian translation which changes the tense, reflects the community and Clare’s choice to accept this future tense, which made them more active, even though it was a risk of heresy.
Next, Isabelle Cochelin evoked the penultimate TOS meeting, when André Vauchez spoke about Francis of Assisi as the key to allowing women like Clare to express their religiosity. Was such the case orshould we see these women as working in parallel, taking their own paths? Sean answered that it is not either one or the other. It would be foolish to minimize Francis’ influence, but it would also be an error to reduce these women’s actions to imitation of Francis. They followed similar paths, but there were many being influenced by him. The emphasis, though, could vary greatly. Valerio added that Francis was not the only one who lived such a life, but he was the only one who placed emphasis on dialogues with animals and other cultures, and in this way he could be the start of the dialogue between men and women about mystical religion. Jacques added that his previous book, François d’Assise : un passage, noted that Francis often presented himself as a woman. He was, therefore, a model of female devotion and religiosity; he imitated women first, who then imitated him. He often played the role of the mother of his brothers, which places him in a maternal role in the Franciscan community. He thinks that Francis treated Clare of Assisi very poorly; for him, she was a burden and a mixed community of men and women religious would have been too dangerous and would have risked backlash from the church. This is why he played the role of mother in his community. The model of Francis became the key to the secret of the sacred realities, as related to the chapter when Clare of Rimini plays the role of Christ in the streets of her city. A woman playing the role of Christ was more of a transgression than Francis doing so. When the same Clare asked to be whipped in public, it was an incredible transgression. It made her walk the line of heresy. Her actions stepped into the privilege of men, but more specifically of clerics. Transgressions moved people – a quality which Francis of Assisi and Clare of Rimini shared.
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski complemented the way the commentary of the life in the book pointed out how visions diffused Clare’s transgressions. She shared that the life was translated into Latin in 1785, with the translation omitting the more scandalous passages.
Jacques answered that he investigated the modern process of canonization in the 18th century, launched by the local community of Rimini. To this end, they had the Italian life translated into Latin and claimed it was the original life. The most transgressive passages were excluded from the Latin version. It is telling that the ones about heresy and Clare playing the role of Christ on Good Friday were cut. It shows us where the story still caused issues.
Isabelle Cochelin pointed out that several members of The Other Sister were working on the northern half of Europe and wondered if there was a fundamental difference regarding non-cloistered religious women or even men between the north and south of Europe? Sean recommended an article about Isabelle de France and the use of a translation of the life into French. He added that Martine Pagan did a lot of work about the translations of Clare of Assisi’s life into French, finding that the original one was probably done at Longchamp, Isabelle de France’s foundation, in the 1270s around the same time Isabelle’s life was written. Sean and Martine’s critical edition of Isabelle de France’s life will be published in a few months in the Journal des Savants. Jacques added that the edition shows that the translation, completed by a woman, was done by translating Italian realities into realities of the court of Saint Louis and his son. A very precise linguistic study can show what you have to do to translate an Italian experience for a French audience. Renate added that the research group on Colette de Corbie has recently published an article in Etudes Franciscaines. Another big article coming out in Etudes Franciscaines is a collection of edited letters of Colette de Corbie. The work of Jeanne-Marie de Mailly is also being edited. According to Renate, there is no clear difference between the northern and southern traditions of non-cloistered religious women. Michael Hahn added that there is a great temptation to divide the groups into different trends, and while there are distinctions, the differences are not as significant as might be thought. Perhaps a chronological shift is more appropriate to think about than a geographical one. Jacques agreed, stating that we must not forget that there was a strong circulation of ideas and people in medieval Europe. He spoke about the modern difficulties of scholarly collaboration, but the joy of working in a group like the Other Sister which connects a large group of scholars.
Frances Kneupper posed another question, asking about public performances like Clare enacting the passion. She shared that she could not think of an example of a woman doing something like this in the Holy Roman Empire. Jacques responded that Clare’s life is like a drama, and for this sort of “theatric” performance, the urban context is important. For Isabelle de France, her theatre was the court of her brother the king, not the streets of a city.
Meghan concluded the meeting by thanking the speakers and participants.
Jacques Dalarun ended the conversation as people said goodbye by pointing out that the meeting of The Other Sister had been, in a way, Clara of Rimini’s long-delayed canonization.