Giuseppe Motta

SUMMARY: Alessio da Seregno ( †1448), active at the Councils of Pisa, Constance and later at Basle (since 1431), was bishop of Piacenza and author of several theological works. He composed sermons on the Virgin Mary and for the liturgical year, surviving in two MSS. Here his sermons for Lent are edited, with identification of loci paralleli and sources: among these the Franciscan masters St Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Alexander of Hales are most frequently recurring. The text structure, the great number of theological details and passages of pastoral use suggest that these sermons could be used as models for preaching to lay congregations.

Alessio da Seregno OFM (1360/65-1448) was a lector in S. Francesco Grande at Milan, and became bishop of Bobbio, afterwards of Piacenza. He was active at the Councils of Pisa (1409), Constance (1414-18), Basle (since 1431). As a lector he commented Peter Lombard’s Sententiae, and he gave several speeches / homilies at the Councils, particularly at Constance. His homilies are transmitted by 15th-Century MSS: Stresa, Centro internazionale di studi rosminiani, 22 (datable ca. 1430-35); Brescia, Bibl. Queriniana, A.VI. 30; Assisi, Bibl. del Sacro Convento, 560. Three sermons for the Visitation and the Assumption of Our Lady are here edited.