Santa Brigida in Toscana. Volgarizzamenti e riscritture profetiche

By the end of the 14th century, Birgitta of Sweden’s “Revelations”, widely circulated throughout Europe, and were particularly popular in Tuscany. The first ever vernacular translation of the “Revelations” was realized in Siena sometime before 1399. In the following years, this trans- lation and other Birgittine texts were copied, in Latin or in vernacular, in the scriptorium of the Paradiso outside Florence, the first Birgittine monastery to be founded after Vadstena. But the Italian reception of Birgitta’s legacy was not only characterized by reading, abridging, translating or listening to her authentic works. Alongside them, new revelations on Church reform were inspired by her figure (such as Rasmo of Viterbo’s visions), and new prophecies concerning the Italian politics of the 15th and 16th century were attributed to her (such as the ‘frottola’ “Destati o fier leone al mio gran grido”, or the ‘cantare‘ “Ave Iesu, figliuol di Maria”).