For information

333 9467027 

Wardrobe

Guglielmo Durante (French Guillaume Durand, Latin Guilelmus Durandus; Puimisson, 1230 – Rome, 1 November 1296) was a French Catholic bishop.

Index

1Biography

2Works

3Notes

4Related items

5Other projects

6External links

Biography

Tomb of Guglielmo Durante, by Giovanni di Cosma. Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.

William Durante was born in Puimisson in the diocese of Béziers, into a noble family from Languedoc. He carried out his major studies in Lyon, under the guidance of Henry of Susa, obtaining his doctorate in 1255. He studied law in Bologna with Bernardo da Parma. He later became professor of law in Modena, in 1264. His great speculative ability earned him the epithet Doctor speculator.

We subsequently find him in Rome, where he becomes apostolic chaplain and general auditor of palace cases at the behest of Clement IV, a pontiff of French origin[1]. It is said that by administering the Patrimony of Saint Peter under the pontificate of Gregory However, the pontiffs' esteem for him did not diminish. Indeed, in 1283 the new Pope Martin IV made him governor of Romagna and the Marca Anconitana, in a period in which the Guelphs and Ghibellines, with opposing reasons, were putting the local population to the test.

On 24 April 1285 he was elected bishop of Mende, France, by the cathedral chapter, although he remained in Italy until 1291. In 1295 Pope Boniface VIII wanted him to the archbishopric of Ravenna, but William politely did not accept. In the same year he had a Pontifical drawn up. He died on November 1, 1296, in Rome. His tomb, sculpted by Giovanni di Cosma, is located in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

Among his works we mainly remember two treatises, which had a wide diffusion throughout the Middle Ages and in the first decades of the fifteenth century: the Speculum judiciale ("The mirror of law"), which had over 60 editions and earned him the title of Doctor speculator, and the Rationale divinorum officiorum, a splendid treatise on the symbolic meanings of ecclesial architectural elements and liturgical celebrations.