Gabriel Barletta

Gabriel Barletta or Gabriele da Barletta (Barletta, Italy, 15th century) was a Catholic preacher of the Dominican Order, whose sermons were widely published in Italy after his death.

Sermons

Used across Italy, Barletta's sermons became synonymous with preaching: Nescit praedicare qui nescit barlettare (He who knows how to preach, knows how to "Barletta").

In form his sermons are nothing else than the ordinary homily on the virtues and vices of life. He spares none of the foibles and weaknesses of his contemporaries, and in his denunciations one often meets with passages of eloquent and biting sarcasm. At times he descends to an almost burlesque mimicry, as witness his sermon on the manner in which the rich ecclesiastic says the Lord's Prayer. Pierre Bayle and Théophile Raynaud criticize some of Barletta's sermons for coarse language; Dominic Casales defends them in Candor lilii seu Ordo Praedicatorum a calumniis Petri a Valle Clausa [i.e. Theop. Reynaldi] vindicatus.

Scholars disagree on whether Barletta was actually the author of the sermons attributed to him (see Tubing, Quartalschrift, 1872, II, 270), although most accept them as authentic. Leandro Alberti, in his 1550 Descrizzione di tutta Italia, says that an unskilled youth whom he knew gathered together old and unknown sermons and ascribed them to Barletta.

Works

Barletta's sermons appeared in two volumes at Brixen in 1497, and have been reprinted very frequently since. Jacques Échard says that no less than thirteen editions appeared in eighty years. The best edition is that of Venice (1577), in two volumes. While originally given in the vernacular, they survive only in Latin.

His best works:

• Sermones quadragesimales et de sanctis (Holy Lenten Sermons)
• Tabula super Bibliam (Overview of the Bible)
• Votum de libro De divina praeordinatione vitae et mortis humanae (An Invocation of the Book: On the Divine Predetermination of Human Life and Death)

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Gabriel Barletta — (Sometimes called Barlete, De Barolo, Barolus)

Preacher, b., according to some, in the Neapolitan territory at Barletta, whence he took his name, or, according to others, at Aquino; d. sometime after 1480. Little is known of his life other than that he was a Dominican and probably a pupil of St. Antoninus. All his contemporaries held him in high esteem as an orator. He was generally proposed, even during his lifetime, as the model orator. After his death his fame did not diminish, if the popular saying which Altamura has preserved for us be a criterion. Throughout Italy it was the common saying: Nescit praedicare qui nescit barlettare. His sermons appeared in two volumes at Brixen in 1497, and have been reprinted very frequently since. Echard says that no less than thirteen editions appeared in eighty years. The best edition is that of Venice (1577), in two volumes.

In form his sermons are nothing else than the ordinary homily on the virtues and vices of life. He spares none of the foibles and weaknesses of his contemporaries, and in his denunciations passages of eloquent and biting sarcasm are often met with. At times he descends to an almost burlesque mimicry, as witness his sermon on the manner in which the rich ecclesiastic says the Lord's prayer. Coarse things are also to be found, but not so frequently as in the printed sermons of some of his rivals. He has been blamed for this coarseness by Bayle and Theophilus Raynaud, but his name has been completely vindicated by Dominic Casales, O.P., in the work "Candor lilii seu Ordo Praedicatorum a calumniis Petri a Valle Clausa [i.e. Theop. Reynaldi] vindicatus". Some maintain (Tubing, Quartalschrift, 1872, II, 270) that Barletta is not the author of the sermons which bear his name. They base their contention on a sentence of Leander Alberti [Descrizzione di tutta Italia (Bologna, 1550), 200], who says that an unskilled youth whom he knew gathered together old and unknown sermons and ascribed them to Barletta. Furthermore, they must have appeared in the vernacular, whilst we know them in the Latin alone. Thus they have suffered many changes and alterations. But up to the seventeenth century there was no question of the authorship. They show sure signs of the times and are not unworthy of his fame. Hence, scholars generally accept them as authentic.

Quetif and Echard, Scriptores Ord. Praed., I, 844, append., II, 823; Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, VI, 1124; Paulus in Literarische Beilage der Kolnischen Volkszeitung (1904), No. 10.