Franciscan Authors
Franciscan Authors

Telesphorus de Cosenza (Telésforo de Cosenza/ Theoloforus/Theolosphorus, ca. 1365 - 1386 )

Telesphorus de Cosenza (Telésforo de Cosenza/ Theoloforus/Theolosphorus, ca. 1365 - 1386 ) OM? Italian. Possibly a Franciscan eschatological thinker. According to Donckel and Paschini a Franciscan hermit whose name really was Telésforo, who later might have entered the order of Gerolamini (Hieronymites). Others think that Telésforo was a pseudonym and are less certain about his order allegiance. He seems to have originated from Calabria (like his illustrious forerunner Joachim of Fiore), who wrote eschatological-political prophecies in the tradition of Jean de Rocquetaillade. Probably a sympathizer of the Clareni Spirituals, and at the same time a supporter of the French royal dynasty. The author claimed to be from Cosenza (Italy) and to live or have lived as a hermit near the site where once stood the ancient city of Thebes. He proclaimed in his Libellus de magnis tribulationibus et statu ecclesiae (two redactions: first one finished between 1356 and 1365, the second between 1378 and 1390) the victory of the French king in the Hundred Years War and profetized the arrival of a French angelic pope. It amounts to an intruiging pastiche taken from the works of Joachim of Fiore, Jean de Rocquetaillade, the so-called Cyrillic prophecies and a range of minor works (listed in the dedicatory letter at the beginning of the work, adressed at Prince Antoniotto Adorno (1340-1398), the sixth Doge of Genoa (then under French influence). The Libellus suggests that the papal schism will end at Perugia in 1393, at which occasion the antipope and his followers will receive their due punishment. Following this, a short period of peace will be inaugurated, but soon the Emperor Frederick III and no less than three antipopes will start persecuting the clergy. They will imprison the French King Charles, but he will be liberated by means of a miraculous intervention. Subsequently the pastor angelicus will become pope, and under his rule the clergy will let go it their temporal possessions voluntary, and at a general council it will be declared that, from henceforth, the clergy will only use what they need to live. The German Electors will hand over their right to choose the emperor to the pope, and the pastor angelicus will crown the French King Charles as the new emperor. Together they will restore church and society to a state of original evangelical poverty and to a state of obedience to the evangelical precepts. The emperor and the pope will together launch a crusade and 'liberate' the Holy Land, converting in the aftermath the Jews, the Orthodox Christians and the infidels. For more information, see the literature below. The theologian Heinrich von Langenstein wrote a polemic reply to Telesphorus's work in 1392 (which was printed in Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus , ed. Bernhard Pez (Augsburg, 1721-9) I, 507-64).

Works

  • Libellus Fratris Telefori / Libellus de causis, statu, cognitione ac fine praesentis schismatis et tribulationum futurarum : Many manuscripts (current count is 67). Cf. the info provided on www.mirabileweb.it [https://www.mirabileweb.it/title/libellus-de-causis-statu-cognitione-ac-fine-praese-title/13125 ], and the additions provided by Michele Lodone (2020). A.o. MSS Syracuse University, Collection von Ranke 90, ff. 2-22v [dating from 1391 and therewith the oldest known manuscript?]

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  • Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 3184 [from 1396]

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  • London, British Library, Add. 21615 [just before 1400?]

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  • Yale, University Library, Beinecke, MS 1215 [ca. 1390?]

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  • Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Reg. lat. 580 [written in Ferrara between 1420-1425]

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  • Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat.lat. 3816 (1448)

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  • Lyon, Bibliothèque de la Part-Dieu (olim Bibliothèque Municipale), 189 (116)

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  • Milano, Trivulziana, 199 [Piacenza, 1496]

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  • Padova, Bibl. del Seminario, 83

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  • Modena, Bibl. Estense, lat. 233

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  • San Daniele del Friuli, Bibl. Guarneriana, 44

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  • Mainz, Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek, 247

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  • Pavia, Biblioteca Civica 16

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  • Pommersfelden, Gräflich Schönbornsche Bibliothek, 102 (xv. s.)

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  • Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 1687

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  • Munich, Universitätsbibliothek, 2* cod.ms. 684, ff. 106r-109r [German translation]

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  • Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 2965, ff. 39r-41r [Italian translation]

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  • Vienna, österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. 3002 [German translation]. For old editions, see for instance : Abbas Ioachim magnus propheta. Hec subieta in hoc continentur libello. Expositio magni prophete Ioachim: in librum beati Cirilli de magnis tribulationibus & statu sancte matris Ecclesie: ab hiis nostris temporibus vsque ad finem seculi: vna cum compilatione ex diuersis prophetis Noui ac Veteris Testamenti Theolosphori de Cusentia: presbyteri & heremite. Item Explanatio figurata & pulchra in Apochalypsim de residuo statu Ecclesie ... Item Tractatus de antichristo magistri Ioannis Parisiensis Ordinis predicatorum. Item Tractatus de septem statibus Ecclesie deuoti doctoris fratris Vbertini de Casali Ordinis minorum. Item Tabula alphabetica principalium materiarum. Item vita magni prophete abbatis Ioachim (Venice: per Bernardinum Benalium, 1516). For digital access, see the digital collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliotek [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb11231885?page=2,3 ], and the portal EDIT16 [https://edit16.iccu.sbn.it/resultset-titoli/-/titoli/detail/CNCE032569 and https://edit16.iccu.sbn.it/resultset-titoli/-/titoli/detail/CNCE031998] This edition is possibly based on a manuscript version made by Rusticiano da Brescia, OP, leaves out the prophecies that had not come to pass and adds illustrations and allusions to an upcoming crusade against the Ottomans. Later editions (in translation) followed, for instance: Livre merveilleux, contenant en bref la fleur et substance de plusieurs traittez, tant de propheties & revelations (...) (Paris: Thibault Bessault, 1565), accessible via Gallica [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1056893t], via the Mediathèque of Lyon (check Numelyo), and via Google Books. There were also re-issue from Lyon (1572), and elsewhere. Cf. also E. Donckel, ‘Studien über die Prophezeiung des Fr. Telesphorus von Cosenza, O.F.M. (1365-1386)’, Archivum Franciscanum historicum 26 (1933), 282-314, and the studies by Beaune (1989), and Weber (2021)

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Literature