Ugolino Brunforte
Ugolino Brunforte (c. 1262 – c. 1348) was an Italian Friar Minor and chronicler, known principally as the author of the "Fioretti" or "Little Flowers of St. Francis". Life. Few details of Ugolino's life are known. His father Rinaldo, Lord of Sarnano in the Marches, belonged to an ancient and noble family from which had sprung the famous Countess Matilda of Tuscany. Ugolino entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of sixteen. He served his novitiate at the convent of Roccabruna, but passed most of his life at the convent of Santa Maria in Monte Giorgio , whence he is often called "Ugolino of Monte Giorgio". In 1295 he was chosen Bishop of Abruzzi (Teramo) under Pope Celestine V, but before his consecration Celestine had resigned and Boniface VIII, who suspected Ugolino as belonging to the "zelanti", annulled the appointment with the bull "In supremae dignitatis specula". Nearly fifty years later he was elected provincial of Macerata. At the time of his death in 1348, was provincial of the Friars Minor in the March. Section::::"Fioretti". Most scholars are now agreed that Ugolino was the author of the "Fioretti", or "Little Flowers of St. Francis", in their original  form. Ugolino was probably one of several collectors of traditions in the Marches. The "Fioretti" appears to have been written sometime between 1322 and 1328. In some ways the "Fioretti" says as much about its author as its subject. "Ugolino, it is true, draws himself when he draws his master. It is a singularly, fresh, simple, child-like character with its unfailing belief in the love of God, and the essential goodness of all he has created." Filled with the romance of his native country, the simple friar, so pure in his insight, and so vivid in his realization, painted  an immortal picture of the Saintly life as it was lived in the Middle Ages, on the background of the enchanted country between the Apennines and the Adriatic, the land of Monte Giorgio, the heart of Italy. Although the Latin original has not come down to us, we have in the "Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum Ejus", edited by Paul Sabatier in "Collection d’Études" (Paris, 1902, IV), an approximation to it which may be considered on the whole as representing the original of the "Fioretti". That Ugolino was the principal compiler of the "Actus" seems certain; how far he may  be considered the sole author of the "Fioretti" is not so clear. His labour, which consisted chiefly in gathering the flowers for his bouquet from written and oral local tradition, appears to have been completed before 1328. ---- External links. "This article incorporates text from the 1913 "Catholic Encyclopedia" article "Ugolino Brunforte" by Paschal Robinson, a publication now in the public domain."