The main core of the museum was built
up thanks to Br Louis-Antoine of Porrentruy (France) who collected
iconographical material for a volume on St Francis, which
was published by Plon of Paris at the end of 1884 under the
title of Saint François d’Assise. Using the material
collected for the volume, which had only been partly used,
and with continual additions, Louis-Antoine established a
Franciscan museum above the choir of the friary in Marseilles
(France).. It was opened in October 1889 by General Minister
Bernard of Andermatt.
By the following year the amount of material
finding its way to the museum made enlargements necessary,
and in 1896 a third large room was opened. Meanwhile, for
the defence and protection of the museum its founder in 1895
obtained from the Holy See the Apostolic Brief Minime nos
latet, signed on 20th December by Pope Leo XII. In it the
Pope forbade anyone, under pain of excommunication, to ”remove,
alienate, commute, sell or even transport to some other place
anything at all from the aforesaid Franciscan Museum in Marseillles”.
However, in the years 1903-1904 it became
advisable to secretly remove the items that had the most importance
for the history of Franciscan art. In 1905, in pursuance of
the Masonic law of July 1901, all the objects present in the
Franciscan Museum were sold at public auction. Towards the
end of 1912 the museum reopened in Rome with items saved by
Br Louis-Antoine, at the General Curia in Via Boncompagni.
In 1927 it was transferred to the Historical
Institute in Assisi and solemnly opened on November 29, 1929.
From that time onwards the Museum was to follow the fortunes
of the Historical Institute. |
The Franciscan Museum is not an artistic, historical or
archaeological museum, even though it contains many objects
of high artistic quality and great historic value. It belongs
rather to the category of specialist museums. Through the
items on display, the museum illustrates the history of
the Franciscan Order.
Although the idea of founding a museum came to a Capuchin
friar, its founder did not limit his collection to artefacts
belonging to his own Family. His interest extended to the
Franciscan Order as a whole, to members of the main branches
of the first, second or third Orders who were illustrious
because of their reputation for sanctity or learning or
for the impact they had on society. Then come the various
Families and reforms within the Franciscan Order such as
Conventuals, Capuchins, Observants, Recollects, Reformed
and others. As far as possible the museum’s founder
included Franciscans of every nation, including those where
the Franciscan presence was a missionary one.
A particular characteristic of the museum is that it documents
Franciscan art and culture through the centuries, i.e. from
the 1300’s to the 20th century. The Franciscan Museum,
classified as a non-state museum by ministerial decree dated
15th September 1965 (minor diocesan or religious museum
N° 246), is open to the public on request only.
|
Historical notes 
