Toward the end of his life, the Italian Franciscan friar Salimbene of Parma (1221–ca. 1290) wrote a chronicle that includes character sketches of many people he had met. Salimbene traveled widely throughout Italy and France, meeting both important figures such as Emperor Frederick II and less well-known folk such as the fellow Franciscan he describes here.

Brother Henry of Pisa was a handsome man, of medium height, generous, amiable, charitable, and merry. He knew how to get along well with everyone, … adapting himself to the personality of each one, and he won the love of his own brethren as well as that of the laymen, which is given to few. Moreover, he was a celebrated preacher, beloved by both the clergy and the laity. He knew how to write beautifully, and to paint, which some call illuminate, to write music, and to compose the sweetest and loveliest songs, both in harmony and in plain song. He himself was an excellent singer, and had a strong and sonorous voice, so that it filled the whole choir. And his treble sounded light, very high and clear, but sweet, lovely, and pleasing beyond measure….

That Brother Henry of Pisa was a man of admirable manners, devoted to God and to the Holy Virgin, and to the Blessed Magdalene. No wonder, for the church of his quarter of Pisa bore the name of this saint; the cathedral of the city, in which he had been ordained by the archbishop of Pisa, bore the name of the Blessed Virgin. Brother Henry composed many cantilena and many sequences, for example, the words and melody of the following song:

O Christ, my God,

O Christ, my Refuge

O Christ, King and Lord,

[which he patterned] after the song of a maid who was going through the cathedral church of Pisa, singing in the popular tongue:

If thou carest not for me,

I’ll no longer care for thee.

He made, moreover, the three-part song: “Wretched man, think thou on thy Creator’s works!” …

He composed a noble melody to the sequence: “He had watered the tree of Jesse,” which until then had had a crude one, discordant for singing. Richard of St. Victor wrote the words of this sequence, as well as those of many others.

Source: “Two Musical Friars” by Salimbene, translated by Mary Martin McLaughlin, from The Portable Medieval Reader by James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin, eds., copyright 1949 by Viking Penguin, Inc. Copyright renewed © 1976 by James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

EVALUATE THE EVIDENCE