The galley for Augustine Thompson, O.P.’s new biography of Francis of Assisi arrived the other day. I am reviewing the book (Francis of Assisi: A New Biography; Cornell University Press, April 2012) for America.
It is a curious book right from the start, as Thompson claims, from page one of the Introduction, to be the first person writing in English (he points to only one to have done this before him in Italian) who has sought to uncover the real, historical Francis behind the legends. He writes: “This life is the first sustained attempt in English to treat these medieval sources for Francis in a consistently, sometimes ruthlessly, critical manner.” An odd claim, certainly, if you consider that Paul Sabatier claimed to have been the first to do the same (although he was writing in French), more than a century ago.
Yes, it is very curious, and I am pleased you noticed the oddity of this.
How we reached that state of affairs is explained in the “Sources and Debates” section called the “Franciscan Question.” That section is the “academic” commentary on the short preface, which deals with the trajectory of scholarship beginning with Sabatier.
As conversations between authors and their reviewers are also curious, I think I will leave it at that . . .
With best wiishes,
–Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P.
Paul Sabatier was writing in French, so where’s the contradiction?