Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond

The Observant Movement was a widespread effort to reform religious life across Europe. It took root around 1400, and for a century and more thereafter it inspired or shaped much that became central to European religion and culture. The Observants produced many of the leading religious figures of the later Middle Ages―Catherine of Siena, Bernardino of Siena and Savonarola in Italy, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros in Spain, and in Germany Martin Luther himself. This volume provides scholars with a current, synthetic introduction to the Observant Movement. Its essays also seek collectively to expand the horizons of our study of Observant reform, and to open new avenues for future scholarship.

Contributors are Michael D. Bailey, Pietro Delcorno, Tamar Herzig, Anne Huijbers, James D. Mixson, Alison More, Carolyn Muessig, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Bert Roest, Timothy Schmitz, and Gabriella Zarri.

James D. Mixson (Ph.D. University of Notre Dame, 2002) is Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Poverty’s Proprietors: Ownership and Mortal Sin at the Origins of the Observant Movement (Brill, 2009) as well as several translations and essays on religious life and Observant reform in the later Middle Ages.

Bert Roest (Ph.D. University of Groningen, 1996) teaches Medieval History at Radboud University Nijmegen. His publications include A History of Franciscan Education (c. 1210-1517) (Brill, 2000), Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction Before the Council of Trent (Brill, 2004), Order and Disorder: The Poor Clares Between Foundation and Reform (Brill, 2013), and Franciscan Learning, Preaching and Mission c. 1220-1650: Cum Scientia sit Donum Dei, Armatura ad Defendendam Sanctam Fidem Catholicam (Brill, 2015).