Duomo, Spoleto

The Leggendari del Duomo (Cathedral Legendaries) are three important parchment volumes that are preserved in the Diocesan Archive of Spoleto.  They mainly record the lives of selected saints, ordered by their feast days.

1. ✴The 1st and 2nd volumes, which were written in the scriptorium of the Abbazia di San Felice di Narco, cover the feast days for the entire year.  The introduction records that the monk Offredo compiled the collection in 1194, in the time of Prior Bernardo I.
   

2. ✴The 3rd volume (early 13th century), which comes from the church of San Brizio, includes the lives of saints whose feasts fall in the period May - September.  An inventory of 1488 recorded this volume in situ: if there was originally a companion volume, it had probably been lost by that time.
   

Bishop Paolo Sanvitale (1591 - 1600) seems to have discovered the documents and placed them in the archives, where they were documented in 1618.  However, the Bollandists who visited Spoleto in 1660 were unable to see them and understood that they had been destroyed.  Bishop Cesare Facchinetti (1655-72) threatened to excommunicate anyone found to have misappropriated them, and they were subsequently rediscovered.  It seems that the scholar Ferdinando Ughelli had borrowed them in preparation for his “Italia sacra sive de episcopis Italae” (in nine volumes, published in 1643-62).  He had not returned them by the time of his death in 1670, and they languished among his possessions in the hands of his heirs.  They were discovered in 1679 and returned to the archives in 1683. 

Legend of the Twelve Syrians

The legendaries contain two copies of the legend of St Brictius (BHL 1622d), one of the source texts for the Legend of the Twelve Syrians, both (for an unknown reason)  under September 9th:

1. ✴one of these copies in the legendary from San Felice di Narco (Volume II, Folios 100-2); and
   

2. ✴one in the legendary from San Brizio (Folios 180-2).
   

Both versions are reproduced by R. Cordella and A. Inverni (referenced below).

The legendaries also contains legends of individual saints who were apparently numbered among the twelve Syrians:

1. ✴In the legendary from San Felice di Narco, Volume I:
   

2. •St Laurence of Spoleto (4th February, Folios 134-5)
   

3. •St Herculanus of Perugia (1st March, Folios 161-3)
   

4. •St John Penariensis (13th March, Folio 169)
   

5. •St Isaac of Spoleto (11th April, Folios 177-8)
   

6. •St Eutychius of Norcia (15th May, Folios 213-6)
   

7. ✴In the legendary from San Felice di Narco, Volume II:
   

8. •St John of Spoleto (September 19th, Folios 109-13)
   

9. •St Baractalis of Spoleto (October 9th, Folios 143-4)
   

10. •St Anastasius of Terni (17th August, Folios 238-41)
    

11. ✴In the legendary from San Brizio:
    

12. •a second copy of the legend of St Eutychius of Norcia (15th May, Folios 93-5).
    

Three related legends that were in the collection in the late 16th century are missing:

1. ✴In the legendary from San Felice di Narco, Volume II (known from a 16th century index):
   

2. •the legend of SS Felix and Maurus, the founders of San Felice di Narco (Folio 250).  They were members of the later group known as the 300 Syrians whose leader was St Carpophorus
   

3. •the legend  of St Vincent of Bevagna (Folio 253).
   

4. ✴In the legendary from San Brizio:
   

5. •the legend of SS Carpophorus and Abundius), another two of the twelve Syrians (recorded in situ in 1568).
   

Volume I of the legendary from San Felice di Narco also contains a copy of the legend of St Anastasius the Persian  (24th January, Folios 119-22), who might be a “double” for St Anastasius, the leader of the twelve Syrians. 

Other Umbrian Saints

Other Umbrian saints whose legends are included in the legendaries include:

San Felice di Narco, Volume I

1. ✴St Sabinus of Spoleto and Assisi (7th December, Folios 11-13)
   

2. ✴St Gregory of Spoleto (24th December, Folios 36-40)
   

3. ✴St Concordius of Spoleto (1st January, Folios 80-1)
   

4. ✴St Pontian of Spoleto (14th January, Folios 92-3)
   

5. ✴St Felician of Foligno (24th January, Folios 118-9)
   

6. ✴St Emilianus of Trevi (28th January, Folios 126-9)
   

7. ✴St Constantius of Perugia (29th January, Folios 129-30)
   

8. ✴St Valentine of Terni (14th February, Folios 151-2)
   

9. ✴St Juvenal of Narni (3rd May, Folios 196-7)
   

10. ✴SS Anthimus and Maximus of Terni (11th May, Folios 206-8)
    

11. ✴St Senzius of Spoleto (25th May, Folios 216-8)
    

San Felice di Narco, Volume II

1. ✴St Terentian of Todi (1st September, Folios 90-2)
   

2. ✴SS Fidentius and Terence of Massa Martana (27th September, Folios 122-4)
   

3. ✴St Firmina of Amelia (24th November, Folios 188-9)
   

4. ✴St Illuminata of Massa Martana (29th November, Folios 194-6)
   

San Brizio

1. ✴St Juvenal of Narni** (3rd May, Folio 79-81)
   

2. ✴SS Anthimus and Maximus of Terni** (11th May, Folios 85-7)
   

3. ✴St Fortunatus of Montefalco (1st June, Folios 95-6)
   

4. ✴St Fortunatus of Todi (30th June, Folios 122-4)
   

5. ✴St Terentian of Todi** (1st September, Folios 173-4)
   

6. ✴St Firmina of Amelia** (24th November, Folios 230-2)
   

7. ✴St Illuminata of Massa Martana** (29th November, Folios 247-8)
   

** These saints also appear above in the legendary from San Felice di Narco.