Petrus Ferrandi Hispanus

Petrus Ferrandi Hispanus (died 1254×59), in Spanish Pedro Ferrando, in English sometimes Peter Ferrand or Peter of Spain, was a Dominican friar who wrote the Legenda sancti Dominici, a biography (legenda prima) of Saint Dominic of Osma, and possibly also wrote the liturgy of the saint's feast.^[1]

Peter probably died in 1254. He was certainly dead by 1259. His obituary, written by his friend and fellow Dominican Giles of Portugal was contained in the Vitas fratrum (Lives of the Brothers) compiled by Gerald de Frachet in 1258 or 1259. The obituary indicates that Giles was present when Peter died in Zamora:

When a brother, Peter Ferrandi, who from childhood was brought up in the order of the most holy and learned man [Dominic], and who wrote a life of the blessed Dominic our father, [and was] a teacher in many areas [and many fields in Spain], finally fell ill at Zamora, this devoted brother saw Him standing on a most high mountain, his face resplendent as the sun, and at his right hand and at his left the two young men standing resplendent also. When, however, the next day he told me that he had seen this vision, I understood that the brother Peter in the near future would die.^[2]

The text "in Spain" was added later by Humbert of Romans to clarify that Peter did not teach outside Spain. Writing towards 1304, Bernard Gui clarified further that Peter Ferrandi was from Galicia (Hyspanus natione de Galexia). The Regensburg Lectionary further indicates that Peter's Legenda and his liturgy were later approved by the Dominican general chapter before 1300.^[2] Peter's Legenda seems to have superseded the Libellus, a short biography of Dominic by Jordan of Saxony, around 1235 before being itself substantially revised by Constantine of Orvieto in the late 1240s.^[3]

In the early fifteenth century Friar Luis de Valladolid identified the author of the Legenda with the logician Peter of Spain, an identification which has been accepted by some modern scholars.^[4]^[5] Others reject the connection between the friar and the logician.^[1]

Notes

^ ^a ^b Joke Spruyt, "Peter of Spain" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
^ ^a ^b Simon Tugwell, "Petrus Hispanas: Comments on Some Proposed Identifications", Vivarium 37, 2 (1999): 103–13: Cum frater Petrus Ferrandi, qui a puero in ordine sanctissime nutritus et doctus fuerat, qui et uitam beati Dominici patris nostri descripsit, doctor in multis locis [Hyspanie multis amis], tandem apud Zamoram infirmaretur, quidam deuotus frater uidit ipsum supra montem altissimum stantem et faciem eius resplendentem ut sol, et a dextris et a sinistris duos iuuenes stantes splendidos nimis. Cum autem sequenti die frater michi uisionem hanc dixisset quam uiderat, intellexi fratrem Petrum in proximo moriturum..
^ Anita Fiderer Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca Di San Domenico and Its Legacy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), 50.
^ Lambertus Marie de Rijk, "On the Life of Peter of Spain, the Author of the Tractatus, called afterwards Summule logicales", Vivarium 8, 2 (1970): 123–54.
^ Angel d'Ors, "Petrus Hispanus O.P., Auctor Summularum (III): "Petrus Alfonsi" or "Petrus Ferrandi"?" Vivarium 41, 2 (2003): 249–303.

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Further reading