Orbis Seraphicus–A Bibliographical Note

Abstract

Orbis Seraphicus is the title of the impressive Franciscan cosmography projected by Fr. Domenico De Gubernatis da Sospello (d. 1690) for a total of some thirty-five volumes in folio divided into four sections. The programmatic plan of the work, which was submitted to the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order held at Rome in 1688, is known to us as published by the author himself. It has the formidable heading: Idea Orbis Seraphici de tribus Ordinibus a Seraphico Patriarcha S. Francisco institutis, deque illorum progressibus et honoribus per quattuor mundi partes Europam, Asiam, Africam, et Americam, in obsequium Jesu Christi et Ecclesiae Sanctae Romanae, pro defensione atque propagatione fidei catholicae reportatis, a Fr. Dominico De Gubernatis concepta et concinnata; Romae Typographia Comerae Apostolicae, 1688. Copies of the plan are rare, and thus the writer took advantage of the occasion to reproduce it in the prolegomena of the Orbis Seraphicus itself, when it was published at Quaracchi in 1945.