CASIMIR OF ROME, Saint. - Franciscan historian of the 18th century, d. in Rome on 17 April 1749. Neither the date of his birth nor the Roman family to which he belonged is known. He took the Franciscan habit in the Roman province of S. Maria in Aracoeli at the beginning of the 18th century, certainly before 1705, when we find him already a clerical student of Belles-lettres in the convent of S. Francesco in Palombara.
In 1707 he was transferred to the convent of S. Maria in Aracoeli in Rome to complete his studies of philosophy and theology there. In 1713 he was teaching letters in the convent of S. Francesco in Tivoli, then in that of S. Bartolomeo all'Isola in Rome, until in 1721 he moved on to teach theology in Aracoeli. In 1728 he left the chair in order to devote himself entirely to collecting and arranging the records of the church and convent of S. Maria in Aracoeli, as well as those of the other convents of the Roman province and of the monasteries of nuns subject to it. He spared no effort in his work of research, which he then, with true acumen, arranged in two quarto volumes: the first, Memorie istoriche della chiesa e del convento di S. Maria in Aracoeli di Roma, saw the light in Rome in 1736, while C. was still alive, whereas the other,
Memorie istoriche delle chiese e dei conventi dei Frati Minori della Provincia Romana, already ready and approved for printing in 1741, was published by Nicola Borgiani only in 1754. To both volumes C. had, on several occasions, added supplements. Gregorio Giacomo Terribilini in his Diario (cod. Vat. lat. 12.502, ff. 36-59) has shed light on the scholarly figure of C. The two works cited show him to be a historian not unworthy of the age of the Maurists and of Ludovico Antonio Muratori. The one on Aracoeli is rightly regarded as the first monograph of a church in Rome conceived in the modern sense: both constitute a mine of well-verified information that today it is not always possible to trace back to their sources.
Bibliography3 works
Benedetto Pesci