Pierre de Limoges, De oculo morali. Viterbo, 1656. Printed work.
Luke Wadding (1588-1657) was born in Waterford and became the leading historian of the Franciscans during his lifetime and probably the most influential Irish Franciscan ever. He was involved in the appointment of many Irish bishops and in many political manoeuvres relating to Ireland. He is best known as a scholar for his Annales Minorum, a history of the Franciscan order from its foundation to the sixteenth century. He established St Isidore's, the Irish Franciscan college in Rome in 1625. In 1656 Wadding edited and arranged for the printing of Pierre de Limoges' De oculo morali described as 'moral and spiritual applications for prelates and others of the current scientific knowledge of the eye'.
The book is dedicated to Giulio Rospigliosi, archbishop of Tarsus and former nuncio to the Spanish court. Wadding's eye for influential contacts was at work here. Rospigliosi became secretary of state to Pope Alexander VII in 1657 and was ultimately elected pope (Clement IX) in 1677, twenty years after Wadding's death.
