BOVERIO, ZACCARIA DA SALUZZO. - Capuchin writer of the Piedmontese province, b. in 1568, d. at Genoa on 31 March 1638.
A missionary against the Protestants of the Piedmontese valleys and of Savoy (1600-12), he confuted their doctrines in the Demonstratissimus symbolorum verae et falsae religionis (2 vols., Lyon 1617); a lecturer in theology at Dijon (1618), he wrote the Paraenesis catholica (Lyon 1618), and the Censura paraenetica (Milan 1621) against the errors on the constitution of the Church contained in the De republica ecclesiastica of Archbishop Marcantonio de Dominis, who had gone over to Anglicanism; for the conversion of Prince Charles of Wales, the future King of England, he destined the Orthodoxa consultatio de ratione verae fidei et religionis amplectendae (Madrid 1623, Cologne 1626, Rome 1635); in 1624 the Congregation of Propaganda Fide charged him with directing a school of controversy in the convent of S. Bonaventura in Rome. A doctor of law, he composed for the use of his confreres the Directorium fori iudicialis (Turin 1624) and the De sacris ritibus (Naples 1626). He was definitor general, consultor of the minister general, of Card. F. Barberini and of the Congregation of the Holy Office. He is known above all as a historiographer of the Order; the two Latin volumes of his Annales, the first down to 1580 (Lyon 1632), the second down to 1612 (posthumous, ibid. 1639), are still valued. The Italian version appeared in four volumes: the first and second on the text emended by the author himself (Turin 1641; Venice 1643); the third and fourth (ibid. 1645). The documentary basis consists of the ancient manuscript chronicles and the reports sent in by the provinces; rather than the sifting of criticism, B. loves to edify with hagiographic lessons and pious tales. The reaction of the Observant Friars Minor to the polemical passages provoked from the Holy Office, in 1651, a decree of emendation of the Latin and Italian edition, which was withdrawn the following year, while the controversies did not cease. The Spanish version is in 3 volumes (Madrid 1644, 1646, 1647); the French one in 2 (Paris 1675, 1677); the German in 3 (Salzburg 1664, 1665, 1667); the Polish one divides vol. I into two parts (Warsaw 1780, 1790). Marcellino de Pise da Mâcon continued the Latin narrative down to 1634 with vol. III (Lyon 1676); Italian version in 3 vols. (Trent 1708; Milan 1711, 1714); Spanish version in 2 vols. (Madrid 1690, 1691); German version (Salzburg 1690). Silvestro Draghetta da Milano composed a Latin vol. IV of appendix in two parts (Milan 1737); Italian version in 2 vols. (ibid. 1744); Spanish version of the first part (Madrid 1758).