Marcus of Orvieto’s Liber de Moralitatibus

Abstract

The Liber de Moralitatibus is a work in the literary genre of exempla literature, that is a source book compiled for the use of preachers. The author or compiler of this work, Marcus of Orvieto, is known only from an inscription in two Vatican manuscripts, namely Vat. Lat. 5935 and Vat. Lat. 636 and in the latter codex his name is inked over. I could find no evidence of Marcus’s existence in Sbaralea’s work on the Scriptores Ordinis Minorum. However, Faucon in his inventory of the Papal Library at Avignon describes one of the manuscripts as «Item, liber de mortalitatibus (sic!) septem Martini De Urbevetani Ordinis Minorum», where ‘mortalitatibus’ and ‘Martini’ are on the fringes of the target even if they don’t hit the bull’s eye. In his description of the manuscripts of Rome’s Biblioteca Angelica, Narducci suggested it might be the work of Giles of Rome, which is probably the source from which Glorieux gleaned the attribution to Giles.

There seems little doubt that Marcus was a Franciscan. In addition to the colophon of the two Vatican manuscripts, there is much internal evidence to substantiate his status as a Friar Minor. While he frequently refers to anecdotes about Sts. Benedict and Dominic, the allusions to Francis of Assisi are far more abundant. He cites faithfully from Bonaventure’s Legenda Maior.