Bonaventure Baron (d.1696)

Bonaventure Baron was born in Clonmel in the early years of the seventeenth century.  He was the nephew of the eminent scholar Luke Wadding, under whose guidance he entered the Franciscans and settled in Rome at St Isidore’s College.  He quickly acquired expertise as a theologian, and became a respected Latin stylist, composing some of the most accomplished Latin verses of his generation.  He enjoyed the favour and friendship of Popes Urban IV and Alexander VII, as well as Cardinal Barberini.  He taught at Isidore’s, then spent some time in Hungary engaged in duties for his order.  Later, he was appointed privincial commissary for the Franciscan Order, and in 1676 Cosimo de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, honoured him with the office of historiographer in recognition of his eminence as a scholar and Latinist.  After some period of residence in Florence, his last years were spent at Isidore’s in Rome.  He is stated to have declined several bishoprics and the rectorship of Isidore’s.  His publications were extensive and highly respected, ranging from occasional verse to theological treatises on Scotist theology.  Several portraits of him survive, as do numerous manuscripts in the Franciscan Library at Killiney.

Works

1.             Reverendissimo admodum Patri P.F. Lucae Waddingo... avunculo suo plurimum colendo. Fr Bartholomaeus Baronius...conclusiones                   philosophicae, (Louvain, 1630), Folio.

2.             Eminentissimo et Reverendissimo Principi Alphonso de la Cueva..Fr Bonaventura Baronius..Conclusiones Theologicae (Rome, 1633), Broadsheet.

3.             Eminentissimo et Reverendissimo Principi Francisco Card. Barberini..Fr Bonaventura Baronius..Conclusiones Theologicae Iuxta Mentem Dotoris Subtilis, Announcement of public defence of thesis at St Isidore's College (Rome, 1635), Broadsheet.

4.             Orationes Panegyrici Sacra-Prophani, Necnon Controversiae et Stratagemata, (Rome, 1642), 12mo.

5.             Metra Miscellanea, Sive Carminum Diversorum Libri Duo Epigrammatum Unus, Sylvulae Secundus (Rome, 1645), 12mo.

6.             Conclusiones Theologicae Ad Mentem Doctoris Subtilis (Rome, 1646), Broadsheet.

7.             Conclusiones Theologicae Ex Universa Theologia Scholastica Canonica Morali, (Rome, 1649), Broadsheet.

8.             Harpocrates Quinqueludius; Seu Diatriba Silentii (Rome, 1651), 12mo.

9.             Prolusiones Academicae in Potiores Sacra Theologia Materias Quum Dictandae, Aut Disputandae Offeruntur (Rome, 1651), 12mo.

10.             Prolusiones Philosophicae, Logicis et Physicis (Rome, 1651), 12mo.

11.            Divus Anitius Torquatus Severinus Boetius Sive de Consolatione Theologiae (Rome, 1653), 12mo.

12.            Controversiae et Stratagemata (Lyons, 1656), Octavo.

13.            Metra Miscellanea Epigrammatum Libri Tres Sylvarum Totidem (Cologne, 1657), 12mo.

14.            Scotus Defensus (Cologne, 1662), Folio.

15.            Cursus Philosophicus (Cologne, 1664), Folio.

16.            Opuslua Prosa et Metro (Würzburg, 1666), Folio.

17.            Joannis Duns Scoti..Contra Adversantes Defensus Questionum Novitate Amplificatus, (Lyons, 1668), Folio.

18.            Opuslua Prosa et Metro Tomus Secundus (Lyons, 1669), Folio.

19.            Baronis Ferraria Celebrata (Florence, 1674).

20.            Orbis Medicii (Florence, [1674?]), Quarto.

21.            Franciscus Principis Mirandulae Anagrammati: Et Epice Celebratus (Florence, [1675]), Folio.

22.            Trias Tusca Sive Totidem Servi Dei Nuper in Hetruria Vitis Functi et Defuncti, Biographies (Rome, 1676), Octavo; 2 plates.

23.            Annales Ordinis SSmae Trinitatis Redemptoribus Captivorum (Rome, 1684).

24.            Luca Celebrata Eulogia Anagrammat. & Epigram (Rome, 1685), Quarto.

25.            Obsidio et Expugnatio Arcis Duncannon Sub Thoma Prestono (published in later editions of no.3, but referred to as a separate work by                     Walter Harris).