medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Saturday, November 27, 2004, at 6:55 pm, Phyllis wrote:
>James Gangala (d. 1476) James was born in Ancona, studied law, and
became a Franciscan.
This James is much better known by his region of origin, usually either
in the grammatical singular commonly encountered in his own day ("la
Marca"; "the March") or else in the plural used in the name of the
modern Italian region ("le Marche"; "the Marches"). A quick search on
Google just now for "James of the March" produced 187 hits for either
that name form or "James of the Marches", while an analogous search for
"James Gangala" produced a mere 10 hits. Most of the latter were on
popularly oriented "saints of the day" sites apparently uninformed by
the widespread scholarly practice seen, e.g., in J.'s _DBI_ entry (by
Carla Casagrande, vol. 54, pp. 214-20: "Giacomo della Marca") and in the
title of this recent conference volume: Silvano Bracci, ed., _San
Giacomo della Marca nell'Europa del '400. Atti del Convegno
internazionale di studi, Monteprandone, 7-10 settembre 1994_ (Padova:
Centro Studi Antoniani, 1997; 508 pp.). Even Latin "Jacobus de Marchia"
produced more hits (61).
The late 15th-/early 16th-century Neapolitan poet Jacobo (Jacopo)
Sannazaro has an early elegy (_El._ 1. 7) on our J., who spent the last
several years of his life as a recluse in a then largely uninhabited
part of today's Naples. In the title to this piece, J. (who, _pace_
Phyllis' source, was born not in Ancona but rather in the Picene town of
Monteprandone) is called in humanist fashion 'Jacobus Picenus'. But
referring to him today as "James the Picene" would be even more
unhelpful than is calling him "James Gangala". Though not, perhaps, by
much.
Best,
John Dillon
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