Antonín Kalous and Jana Svobodová have brought to light the editio princeps of the Franciscan chronicle by the German Eberhard Ablauff (died 1528), a friar Minor from the Rhineland who became a member of the Franciscan Observant Vicariate in Bohemia, where he spent the last part of his life. This is the first volume of a larger editorial project led by Palacký University in Olomouc, dedicated to the two surviving Franciscan chronicles from the Bohemian province: Eberhard's and the Chronica fratrum Minorum de Observantia provinciae Bohemiae, composed by Michael of Carinthia (died 1534) and later continuators. The latter also appears in the same series of the publisher Viella (Franciscans and Europe: History, Identity, Memory), directed by Kalous himself and Letizia Pellegrini.

The critically edited text of Eberhard's chronicle is preceded by an 'Introduction' and followed by a series of appendices, including the edition of additional historical information annotated in the same manuscript of the chronicle, as well as a bibliography and an index of names and places mentioned in the text. The edition also features copious and detailed commentary in the footnotes, along with critical annotations on the text, presented as endnotes at the end of each year.

Eberhard's religious family was established in Bohemia as a consequence of John of Capestrano's religious mission in Central Europe. In 1451, accompanied by twelve friars, the Italian Franciscan Observant embarked on a mission aimed at fostering the crusade against the Ottomans and combating the heresies who threatened the unity of the Catholic Church, particularly the Hussites. The entanglement of political, cultural, and religious network that this mission stirred up in Central Europe has attracted increasing scholarly interest in recent years. The political and religious ties Capestrano engendered with local authorities and religious prelates, his successful preaching campaigns, and his renowned participation in the defense of Belgrade, besieged by the Turks in 1456, left various historical footprints. Scholars have worked extensively on Capestrano's correspondence in Poland (ed. by Pawel Kras et al., 2018) and Hungary (ed. by György Galamb, 2023). Moreover, the Franciscan Observant reform has also been part of a wider interest in the study of late medieval religious observances, which have engaged several scholars, including James Mixson, Bert Roest, Antal Molnár, Pietro Delcorno, and many others.

As he had successfully done in Italy alongside Bernardine of Siena - the newly canonised saint of the Franciscan Order - John of Capestrano took his mission across the Alps as an opportunity to spread the Franciscan Observant reform by establishing new reformed convents in the cities he visited. His foundations not only led to the formation of a new Observant province - the vicariate of Austria, Poland, and Bohemia, which later divided into three separate provinces - but the communities he helped to form became new centres for the production of local cultural and religious memory. Eberhard's chronicle is thus only one example of a larger group of chronicles recording the history of the religious communities initiated under the impulse of Capestrano's mission, such as the works of Bernardine of Ingolstadt (lost), John of Komorovo (died 1536), Michael of Carinthia, and Nicholas Glassberger (died 1508).

In the "Preface", the editors explain that the edition originates from Svobodová's doctoral research and their earlier collaborations on the chronicle's text. Details on the only surviving witness of the chronicle follow in a dedicated section within the "Introduction". The codex, which includes Eberhard's chronicle (autograph) and other miscellaneous material primarily related to the Observance, was originally kept in the Franciscan convent of St Bernardine in Brno. After the convent's destruction during the Thirty Years' War, it was transferred to Prague and kept in the Franciscan provincial archive. It later entered the archival collection of the Franciscans in Cheb (17). Following several relocations between archives, described in detail by the editors, the manuscript entered the National Library collection in 2008, and it is now preserved in Prague, National Library, MS. Cheb 157.

Initiated in 1505 and covering the years 1451-1528 in annalistic fashion, the chronicle starts with John of Capestrano's mission across the Alps, in particular with his first stop in Vienna, where, according to the account, Capestrano preached for four weeks (31). Outside the city walls, as the editors comment on in the footnotes, the Observants took over the church of St Theobald, formerly belonging to a female community of Franciscan tertiaries. After his sermon on the day of Pentecost, seven novices took the habit of the friars Minor from Capestrano himself, representing for him the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. In this way, from that place, the family of the regular Observance took its beginning in this region (31: "Ibique hec familia Observantie regularis sumpsit initium in istis partibus").

The decision to begin the narrative with Capestrano's mission, however, is not entirely attributable to Eberhard's own choice but rather to the source he was following. As explained in the "Introduction" (21), for the years 1451 to 1505, Eberhard appears to have copied his chronicle from an earlier source. Moreover, the first forty years are all included in Michael of Carinthia's chronicle, with the text being often "identical or almost identical" (21), and also other parts overlap between the two chronicles until 1505. These common parts have been taken into consideration in the constitutio textus, as evidenced in the critical apparatus.

The editors explain that from 1492 to 1528 Eberhard's account is increasingly detailed and original, with the chronicler recording more information from provincial chapters and reporting contemporary events occurring on the broader European historical landscape (24), which he could draw on a variety of sources. For the earlier part of the chronicle, the editors argue that Eberhard and Michael of Carinthia followed a common source. There are also passages common to Eberhard's, Michael's, and the chronicle of John of Komorowo. According to the editors, the overlapping material may have derived from Bernardine of Ingolstadt (22). The editors also suggest a similarity in the "design" - based on the common use of the early Franciscan chronicle of Jordan of Giano - between Komorowo's and the chronicle of Nicholas Glassberger, a friar from Olomouc who, however, lived in Nuremberg and belonged to the Ultramontane branch of the Observance.

The replication of common material across the Franciscan chronicles written in Central Europe underscores why Eberhard's work should be considered organically alongside other Franciscan narratives composed in the same region. The editors anticipate that a thorough discussion on the shared material between Eberhard's and Michael of Carinthia's chronicles will be further developed in the following volume of their project on the Bohemian province (21) - a promising continuation that may reveal the missing pieces of the puzzle. We hope that the laudable initiative launched at the University of Olomouc will pave the way for further research into a broader spectrum of historical sources emerging within the Observant Vicariate established by John of Capestrano in Central Europe.

Andrea Mancini