Condition: Good. Packed in a RIGID mailer. (See Photos)! Pages: not written on, clean, bright, odor free. Cover: clean, bright, rubbing to edges. Ships from California. Ships same or next day (weekdays and Saturdays)! ABOUT: Tucked in the Umbrian hills of central Italy is a little gem of a city, whose magic attracts pilgrims from the world over each year. Its narrow stone streets, its medieval houses, its well-worn piazzas are only part of what draws so many. Assisi is the town in which Francis—the bard of the Spirit who has captured the religious imagination of the West as fully as any figure—lived and died. It was in that city also that another soul followed the vision of Francis and gave it a unique and enduring expression. Clare di Favorone chose to embrace the call of Fran-cis to total, radical poverty. As challenging as that life was for itinerant preachers like Francis and his friends, it was even more radical, even more an indictment of the world's ways, to live a life of poverty within the confines of a cloister, relying only on the generosity of others and the goodness of divine providence for subsistence. Yet that is what Clare and the community she founded did. So impractical was their endeavor that well-meaning ecclesiastics like Hugolino dei Conti di Segni, who was to become Pope Gregory IX, tried to discourage them from so strict an interpretation of the call to poverty. Yet Clare persisted, literally to the day of her death, not only in practicing radical poverty but in attempting to win the Church's formal approval of her rule, which-Pope Innocent IV gave in 1253. The story of this fascinating woman is hidden among a number of diverse sources, many of which, until now, have been inaccessible to the English-speaking student. In this volume, the full range of thirteenth-century source material on the life and legacy of Clare of Assisi is presented. Included are the complete writings of Clare herself: her letters, her Rule, her Testament and Blessing. Also the writings that concern Clare and the Poor Ladies, done by their contemporaries, are presented—documents like the Rule of Cardinal Hugolino, the letters of Gregory IX, Cardinal Raynaldus, and St Agnes of Assisi, plus the Mandate, the Bull of Canonization and others. Lastly, the writ-ings of her contemporaries that deal with Clare and Francis and their followers, which give a picture of her in the context of the broader Franciscan movement of the day, have been gathered here. Based on the most up-to-date historical and textual scholarship, these lucid transla-tions bring to light the little-known treasures of Clare's life and teaching. The writings are complemented by masterful introductions and notes that fill out the texts and make this volume an unparalleled omnibus of sources on "the Light One" of Assisi.