The Vicariate of Bosnia within the Late Medieval Franciscan Observance
Expansion, Crisis, and Disintegration (1339-1469)
Hardback (Published)
(October 2026)
ISBN: 9782503611242
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $113.00
Explores the extraordinary growth, and subsequent crisis and downfall, of the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate (which once covered the Carpathians, a large part of the Balkans, and southern Italy). This book thus establishes the prominent role of Bosnia in the development of the Franciscan Observance.
In the late Middle Ages, Southeastern Europe was targeted by Catholic expansionist aspirations and intense proselytising action. The presence of the ‘ancient heresy of the Manichaeans’ in Bosnia attracted the particular attention of the Roman curia. Its prime agents were Franciscan friars, organised for the most part under the jurisdiction of the Bosnian vicariate, founded in 1339.
This book explores the extraordinary expansion, and the subsequent crisis and disintegration, of the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate, which at one stage extended from the Carpathians and the southern Italy to coverage of a large part of the Balkans. It brings to light a particular emphasis on the relationship between these phases of expansion and fragmentation and the rise of the Observant movement in the Franciscan order. This reform movement has recently attracted much scholarly attention, yet scholarship has concentrated on western Christendom and remains limited with regard to Christendom’s frontiers. The present study integrates this traditional scholarship on the Observance with local (South Slavic and Hungarian) historiographic traditions. It examines the withdrawal of the vicariate’s jurisdiction from different geographical areas and establishes the relationship between this withdrawal and the expanding Observance, thereby bringing into focus the movement’s reformist agenda concerning religious conduct and obedience. It details how the vicariate was fractured across its constituent elements and broken down into different conflicted parts, which later turned into fully-fledged provinces.
This book thus establishes the Bosnian vicariate in the framework of Observance’s internal diversity and demonstrates that the story of the Franciscan Observance is not complete without Bosnia.
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