Opicinus de Canistris
Opicinus de Canistris (24 December 1296 – c. 1353), also known as the Anonymous Ticinensis, was an Italian priest, writer, mystic, and cartographer who generated a number of unusual writings and fantastic cosmological diagrams. Autobiographical in origin, they provide the majority of information about his life. When his works were rediscovered in the early twentieth century, some scholars deemed his works to be “psychotic” due to their extraordinary theological musings and schematic diagrams. The merits of this psychoanalytic interpretation, however, are currently under debate. Biography Northern Italy (1296-1329) Opicinus was born December 24, 1296, in Lomello, near Pavia, Italy. His family, which was well known in Pavia, actively supported the Guelphs against the Ghibellines. He went to school from the age of six. He then studied liberal arts and progressively received an eclectic encyclopaedical training. From a very early age he was interested in drawing. He had several temporary jobs to materially help his family. The storming of Pavia by the Ghibellines on October 8, 1315 forced Canistris' family to take exile in Genoa for three years. Opicinus then distanced himself from the Guelph part of his family, especially following the death of his father and one of his younger brothers. In Genoa he studied theology and the Bible in greater depth and developed his talent for drawing. During this period he was able to see the first "sea maps" (incorrectly known as "portolans"). When he returned to Pavia in 1318, he studied to become a priest, and from 1319 he drew up religious treaties. He was ordained in Parma on February 27, 1320, and in 1323 obtained a modest parish in Pavia (Santa Maria Capella). Between 1325 and 1328, his autobiography doesn't mention any event. Towards the end of this period, he wrote a treatise defending the supremacy of the papacy over the Empire (De preeminentia spiritualis imperii) against the ecclesiological views of Marsilius of Padua, then a close adviser to the emperor elect Lewis of Bavaria in whose hands Pavia had fallen. It is probably this which lead him to leave the city, and find refuge in the nearby Piemontese city of Valenza in the summer of 1329. Avignon (1329 – circa 1353) During his stay in Valenza, he wrote a treatise on the issue of Christian poverty (which has not been preserved). Arrived in Avignon in April 1329, where the Papal Court was located he managed to present his treatise to Pope John XXII. Returning to Valenza, he revised the De preeminentia spiritualis imperii and submitted to the pope. While awaiting for some rewards for his efforts, Opicinus produced a description of the city of Pavia (De laudibus civitatis ticinensis). He eventually obtained a position as scribe at the Apostolic Penitentiary on December 4, 1330. However soon after, a suit was brought against him before the Rota, by the new bishop of Pavia, Giovanni Fulgosi, as part of a wider effort to reorganize the local clergy. Little is known about the suit, as in his writings, Opicinus