Luke Wadding Papers

Date

1554/1805

Extent

211 items

Location of original

Original items located in the UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation.

Repository

UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation

Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive

Repository reference

UCD-OFM, D.01

Language

Latin ; English ; Irish ; Spanish ; Italian

Biographical History

Luke Wadding was born in Waterford on 16 October 1588, the eleventh of fourteen children. He was baptised two days later on the Feast of St. Luke. His family were originally from the baronies of Forth and Bargy in County Wexford. His father Walter was a well-established Waterford merchant and his mother Anastasia a kinswoman of the prominent Lombard family of Waterford. After the death of his parents, Luke left Ireland with his elder brother, Matthew, who enrolled him at the Irish Jesuits’ College in Lisbon. At seventeen years of age, Wadding made his way to Matozinhos in northern Portugal, near Oporto, where he entered the Franciscan Order.

On completion of his noviciate, Wadding’s superiors sent him to the University of Coimbra and from there, to Salamanca. At Easter 1613, Luke Wadding was ordained to the priesthood after his studies. He was then appointed as a professor of theology at the Franciscan College of León and later at Salamanca.

Such was the distinction Wadding achieved in Spain that he was chosen by Philip III for the office of theologian in the embassy sent to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception at the papal court. Several decades later, by letters patent of 1642, the Council of the Confederation of Kilkenny appointed Wadding its accredited agent in Rome. He lived there for almost forty years, in which time he founded St. Isidore’s Franciscan College, the Ludovisian College for Irish secular clergy and, a year before his death in 1657, a noviciate at the friary of Our Lady of the Plain, Capranica.

In total, Luke Wadding compiled or edited about fifty learned volumes on theological and historical subjects, averaging out at well over a volume a year. In 1639, for instance, he published at Lyons a complete edition of the writings of John Duns Scotus in 16 volumes. His greatest literary achievement was the Annales Minorum. First published in eight volumes, it traces the history of the Franciscan Order from its beginnings to the year 1540.

Luke Wadding completed his scholarly works in 1654. Three years later, after a month’s illness he died on Sunday morning, 18 November 1657 and he was buried in the Church of St. Isidore.

Acquisition Information

The papers in this collection were transferred to UCD Archives from the Franciscan Library, Killiney, County Dublin.

Scope and Content

This online collection, UCD-OFM, MSS. D.01, represents the first five volumes of Luke Wadding’s Papers. Previously uncatalogued, this amounts to 1,080 pages which have been disbound, cleaned and strengthened by professional conservator Susan Corr and then databased by Benjamin Hazard. By reason of Luke Wadding’s office as consultor to the Holy See, a selection of these papers came into his hands and, under his supervision, Irish Franciscan friars made exact copies of documents from the Vatican Archive and Library. The collection includes manuscript correspondence, contemporary transcripts and printed matter. This reflects the wide variety of activity engaged in at St. Isidore’s College – from theological scholarship to diplomacy and politics, from Franciscan relations with other religious orders to concerns about patronage and the day-to-day running of the college.

The collection preserves two main types of documents: correspondence, and material for research into ecclesiastical history. Centred upon the years 1618-1657, it starts with the period of Wadding’s career at St. Isidore’s to his death, encompassing his work as Irish agent in Rome and his scholarly interests as a historian. After Wadding’s death, Fr Francis Harold OFM, a nephew of Luke Wadding and his first biographer, continued to add to the collection which was subsequently maintained by the archivists at St. Isidore’s College, Rome, before its transfer to Dublin in 1872. At times, however, the handwriting is difficult to decipher and the material is quite fragmentary. These documents were written and compiled from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries.

Arrangement

The overall arrangement is broadly chronological but the repositioning of documents in these five volumes reflects the regular disruption witnessed in their compilation since the early seventeenth century. For instance, it should be noted that, before being bound in the twentieth century, each of these documents was foliated. After binding, each volume was paginated. The material can therefore appear rather disjointed. The division between the contents of these volumes is not absolute but the material can be categorized as follows: -

Franciscan correspondence and historiography, especially for the Irish Province of the Order; material concerned with the Irish Colleges in Italy, the Low Countries, Spain and Prague; documents relating to the Confederation of Kilkenny and Luke Wadding’s work as their accredited agent in Rome; material from Wadding’s own research as an ecclesiastical historian, such as his interest in the foundation of Irish friaries and abbeys; historical tracts written in defence of Ireland and the Irish; printed matter and transcripts thereof; items of interest from the Jacobite period; letters of the Irish clergy, hierarchy and laity to the offices of the Holy See.

Subjects

Church history--Ireland

Ireland

History

Hagiography--Ireland

Franciscans--History

Correspondence

---

Other Descriptive Information

These five volumes serve a number of research uses. Principal among these is the study of the Franciscan Order, the writing of Irish history, the study of the histories of Irish Colleges established across Europe in the early-modern period and the personalities who worked within them. The collection also casts light on the intellectual atmosphere amongst the global Irish in the early-modern era. Some of these documents have been brought to print by historians since their return to Dublin. The two most notable publications are G. D. Burtchaell and J. M. Rigg (eds.), Historical Manuscripts Commission Report on Franciscan Mss. preserved at the Convent, Merchants’ Quay, Dublin (Dublin: H.M.C., 1906); and Brendan Jennings (ed.), Wadding Papers, 1614-1638 (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1953). Where this occurs, both the foliation and the pagination are recorded.

It should be noted that the appearance of Fr Luke Wadding’s name and those of his near contemporaries can differ from one document to another due to the variety of languages in use and the lack of standard spelling during the period dealt with in these documents. Variants are therefore recorded to avoid confusion.

---

Record source

Finding aid encoded in EAD by the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) - RM., 14 September 2009

Finding aid author

Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA)

Conditions Governing Access to Original Materials Please contact the UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation for further information.

Conditions Governing Access to Digitised Materials Digital surrogates are made available by the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA), subject to the terms and conditions outlined on this website.

Conditions Governing Use of Original Materials Restrictions may vary depending upon the particular item. Please contact the UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute for the Study of Irish History and Civilisation for further information.

Conditions Governing Use of Digitised Materials Digital surrogates may only be used in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA).