Sbaraglia (Sbaralea), Giovanni Giacinto

SBARAGLIA (Sbaralea), Giovanni Giacinto. - Historian and bibliographer of the Conventual Franciscans, b. at S. Niccolò della Rotta (Forlì) on 13 March 1687, d. at Rome, at the SS. Apostoli, on 2 June 1764.

A religious from 4 Aug. 1703, he was ordained a priest on 5 Apr. 1710. In 1715 he was sent to Rome, where in 1718 he obtained the doctorate and the magisterium in theology. Having returned to Ferrara, he devoted himself to historical and bibliographical studies. He then moved on to Florence, Assisi, and Rome (Nov. 1751), where he remained until his death. His scholarly ideal: « Non nova cudere, sed aliena cribrare... meliora facere », is manifest throughout his scholarly output, both published and unpublished.

It suffices to recall among the unpublished works: the Chronotavia Romanorum Pontificum; the Opus miscellaneum revising Labbe's Collectio Conciliorum; the Critica Pagii in Annales Baroni; the Supplementum ad Italiam Sacram Uphelli (preserved in the Arch. Gener. of the Conventuals at the SS. Apostoli in Rome). Among the published works are to be noted furthermore: Disputatio de sacris praxorum Ordinationibus... (Florence 1750) with various appendices; the monumental edition of the Bullarium Franciscanum from 1218 to 1303 (4 vols., Rome 1759-68) and the Supplementum et castigatio ad scriptores Trium Ordinum S. Francisci a Waddingo alisque descriptos, which, besides correcting, doubles the collection, bringing its names from 2249 to 5267 (1st ed., posthumous, Rome 1806; 2nd ed., 3 vols., ibid. 1908-36). These last two works, indispensable for Franciscan history, cause him to be regarded as the principal representative of critical Franciscan historiography.

Giovanni Odoardi