Hic est angelus in manu habens libellum apertum. The Use and Meaning of Apocalyptic Angels in Prophetical Works: The History of a Biblical Model from Joachim to Rupescissa

Abstract

The Vade mecum in tribulatione of John of Rupescissa (1356) is the synthesis of the Friar Minor’s production and, at the same time, the result of a prophetic-apocalyptic reflection that, with Joachim of Fiore as a model and an ideal starting-point, developed especially through the works of Peter of John Olivi and Arnald of Villanova. The Vade mecum’s expectation of a messianic hero, called the reparator, is based on the model of the pastor angelicus, described in the papal prophecies, written in the Franciscan milieu of the first decades of the fourteenth century. Furthermore, this expectation is based on the doctrinal elaboration of an historical hermeneutic connected to the exegesis of the figures of apocalyptic angels, especially those of Revelation 7, 2 and 10, 1.Rupescissa’s work shows a progressive detachment from the typical Franciscan Spiritual motive of identifying the historical Francis as the “angel of the sixth seal”, while suggesting a more explicit papal model for the messianic hero, in view...