Book that inspired St. Francis on exhibit | St. Francis - Texarkana Gazette

This is the book that set St. Francis on the path to poverty.

Lynley Herbert, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum, discusses a legendary item in their collection, the St. Francis Missal from Italy, circa 1200, which is once again accessible after the museum undertook a two-year conservation project.
Photo: Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/TNS

The 12th-century collection of prayers is slightly larger than a sheet of notebook paper. A corner of the beechwood boards covering the manuscript has crumbled away and the surface is delicately pitted with wormholes. Restorers found the dried carapace of an unidentified species of insect trapped inside the pages.

It seems fitting that even after an ambitious and painstaking two-year restoration, the book that persuaded the man from Assisi to renounce earthly goods — and that resulted in the founding of the Franciscan order — appears as humble and unprepossessing as a monk's brown habit.

Now, the book has its own public exhibit at the Walters Art Museum for the first time in nearly 40 years.

"The St. Francis Missal" is an intimate show in which the famous volume is shown with about two dozen paintings, ceramics, ivories and illustrated manuscripts taken from the museum's collection...

According to several accounts of Francis' life written shortly after he died, he was inspired to dedicate himself to a life of poverty in 1208 after he and two friends — all wealthy young men — had been up all night debating about how they could best serve God.

When they couldn't agree, "Francis basically said, 'Let's let God decide,' " Herbert said.
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Source: Texarkana Gazette