Afonso de Alprão

In 1397, while a student in Bologna, Afonso wrote a treatise in Latin on the art of preaching, the title of which varies in the two known manuscripts.^[5] It is known as Ars praedicandi, conferendi, collationandi, arengandi, secundum multiplicem modum or as Tractatus et ars de modo praedicandi.^[4] Both manuscripts spell his name Alphonsus Dalpran.^[13][5] In the manuscript Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS 471, copied in 1444, it accompanies related treatises by Francesc Eiximenis and Thomas de Tuderto.^[4] The other manuscript is Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hamilton 44, copied in the first half of the 15th century.^[5] Albert Hauf has provided a published edition of Afonso's Ars.^[14] There is also a published Spanish translation.^[15]

Although the first sentence of Afonso's Ars declares that it is divided into two parts, only the first survives. It is itself divided into three unequal sections, the first being by far the longest. It deals with how to introduce a sermon's theme. The theme chosen for his examples in "on her head a crown" (in capite eius corona), taken from Revelation 12:1. Afonso gives ten different means of introduction, including an enthymeme, a quotation from a philosopher and a question.^[4] In justifying the length of the first section, he notes that "the introduction alone could suffice for the sermon, as it is done nowadays."^[16] The second and third sections deal with the division of the theme and the distinction of its parts, respectively.^[4]