FEDELE da FANNA. - Friar Minor, b. at Fanna in Friuli on 24 Dec. 1838, d. at Quaracchi on 12 Aug. 1881. He conceived and was the most active collaborator in the critical edition of the works of St Bonaventura da Bagnoregio. The preparatory work lasted 10 years (1870–80), during which Fr F. visited the principal libraries of Europe, gathering valuable material, as is evident from the 21 autograph registers (ms. Bibl. di Quaracchi).
Having joined with various collaborators, he established himself in an ancient Rucellai villa at Quaracchi (Florence), where the International College of S. Bonaventura was founded, with scholarly purposes. Worn out by tuberculosis, contracted through intense work, he died without having been able to see the work in print; it was completed in the institute’s internal printing house in the years 1882–1902. He made known the guiding principles of the critical edition in the Ratio novae collectionis operum omnium sive editorum sive anecdotorum seraphici Eccl. doctoris sancti Bonaventurae (Turin 1874), while in other works he expounded the doctrine of St Bonaventura: Commentarium in Breviloquium (ms. Bibl. di Quaracchi); Seraphici doctoris Bonaventurae doctrina de Romani Pontificis primatu et infallibilitate (Turin 1870); De ratione cognoscendi seu utrum quidquid certitudinaliter cognoscitur a nobis cognoscatur in rationibus aeternis (ibid. 1874).