I'm finishing up an essay on Boniface's Jubilee and came across (thanks to a
reference from Dr.Frances Andrews of the University of St. Andrews) Paolo
Golinelli, 'Roma 1300: il primo giubileo' in G. Bof, et al, *Il Giubileo*
(Vallecchi Editore, Florence, 1995), pp. 19-56, who argues that Cardinal Iacopo
Gaetani Stefaneschi was in fact the anonymous preacher who spoke at St. Peter's
on 1 January 1300. Now in Stefaneschi's contemporary account of the Jubilee the
preacher's name is not given, although one would have imagined that
Stefaneschi, who was a canon of St. Peter's, knew who it was. Golinelli thus
goes even farther than the late lamented scholar--surely one of the great
medievalists--Msgr. Michele Maccarrone--in his thought-provoking article
'L'Indulgenza del Giubileo del 1300 e la basilica di San Pietro', in A. M.
Romanini (ed.), *Roma anno 1300* (Rome, 1983), pp. 731-52, who, if anything,
stresses, perhaps overstresses, the crucial role of Cardinal Stefaneschi in the
coming of the Jubilee.
I say in my article that: 'the "Anonimo Predicatore" would have confirmed from
the pulpit what the religious crowd of the 24th/25th of December already
believed and was now eagerly awaiting. The role of the "Anonimo Predicatore"
was to validate, reinforce, and intensify the popular expectations which had
been aroused earlier.'
Although I still believe that this is true, if Stefaneschi, who did so much to
promote the Jubilee, was himself the "Anonimo Predicatore", it raises a number
of interesting questions.
What do you think?
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
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