BERNARDO da BOLOGNA. — Capuchin writer and orator of the Bolognese province, born on 17 Dec. 1699, in the world Floriano Toselli, died on 19 Feb. 1768.
His Bibliotheca scriptorum Ordinis Minorum Capuccinorum (Venice 1747) is still sought as a useful working tool; in it, supplementing earlier biographies, he lists the published and manuscript works of 1,102 authors. It was continued through the year 1852 by Giovanni M. da Ratiabona, Catalogus scriptorum Ord. Min. Capucc. (Rome 1853). A lecturer in theology and philosophy, he defended Scotist doctrine in the works Institutio theologiae (4 vols., Venice 1764, Ferrara-Venice 1746 and 1756), Institutio philosophica praemittenda theologiae (3 vols., Venice 1766), used as textbooks in the schools of the Order. His Lezioni sopra la regola dei frati Minori di S. Francesco (Venice 1743 and 1753, Modena 1749, Bologna 1754 and 1764) are always instructive. The brief Manuale confessorum Ordinis Capuccinorum (Venice 1737 and 1740, Palermo 1738) was censured by the Holy Office in 1741 with regard to the doctrine concerning reserved cases; corrected editions appeared in Venice-Modena in 1745, Bologna in 1752 and 1771, Prato in 1832, and Turin in 1835. For the use of writers and orators he composed a convenient Frasarium Sacrae Scripturae (Venice 1744, 1760, 1761, 1762, Milan 1761).