Yesterday I needed to look up something in the works of counter-Reformation writer Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (a.k.a. Roberto Bellarmino), about whom I know nothing very much. I found it very difficult to do so using a Google search.
It turns out that there is an Opera Omnia, which was reprinted in Paris by Louis Vivès in 1870-4, and the volumes are on Google Books. So I thought that I would give some links here. The description of contents comes from Worldcat.
Note that the Controversies volumes are divided up into sections covering individual topics, which are sometimes referred to without indicating that they form part of De Controversiis. So I have linked the table of contents for these volumes.
- Vol. 1 – De controversiis christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos. — Volume table of contents.
- Vol. 2 – De controversiis fidei — Volume table of contents.
- Vol. 3 – De controversiis fidei — Volume table of contents.
- Vol. 4 – De controversiis fidei — Volume table of contents.
- Vol. 5 – De controversiis fidei — Volume table of contents.
- Vol. 6 – De controversiis fidei. Appendix ad libros de Summo Pontifice. Disputatio de exemptione clericorum. De translatione Imperii Romani.
- Vol. 7 – Appendix ad tractatum de cultu imaginum. Tractatus de indulgentiis. Judicium de Libro concordiae. Vindiciae Bellarminianae V. Erbermanni (p. [147]-818)
- Vol. 8 – Risposta al trattato dei sette teologi di Venezia. De officio principis Christiani. De ascensione mentis in Deum. De aeterna felicitate Sanctorum. De gemitu columbae. De Septem Verbis. De arte bene moriendi. Tractatus de cognitione Dei.
- Vol. 9 – Conciones
- Vol. 10 – Explanatio in Psalmos.
- Vol. 11 – Explanatio in Psalmos.
- Vol. 12 – De potestate Summi Ponfificis in temporalibus. Apologia. Responsio ad librum inscriptum Tripjlici nodo triplex cuneus. Dottrina cristiana breve. Dichiarazione piu copiosa della dottrina cristiana. De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis.
I believe that there are also some old 17th century English translations of some of his works. I don’t have information on what these might be, however.
I see, on the other hand, that an amazing gentleman named Ryan Grant is publishing a translation of the entirety of De Controversiis through Mediatrix Press. Information about this is here. I suggest that Catholic readers may wish to donate as he suggests on that page, in return for volumes, to help the project along. Very worthwhile.
Note: I find in Wikipedia here a list of the “controversies” covered in De Controversiis:
- The Word of God
- Christ
- The Pope
- Councils
- The Members of the Church
- The Church Suffering
- The Church Triumphant
- The Sacraments in General
- Baptism and Confirmation
- The Sacrament of Eucharist
- Penance
- Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony
- The Grace of the First Man
- The Loss of Grace
- Grace and Free Choice
- Justification
- Good Works
It’s often very hard to find your way in multi-volume works in Google Books because of the poor metadata. Hathi Trust is sometimes better organised but not always. Thank you for the list you have compiled. This kind of thing is very helpful.
Yeah, Ryan Grant has apparently been working on this for a while. It’s useful, and I gather that the Latin isn’t too hard. There’s a professor who kept urging people to take it on, and finally somebody did.
Oh, hey, re: hagiography, this article on some contemporary martyrs has some very interesting things in it. The heading is in Italian, but if you scroll down, the article is in English.
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2022/02/24/who-were-those-21-martyrs-beheaded-by-isis-an-investigation/
@Paul, thank you!
Well done Ryan, and the professor who put him up to it. Thank you for the link!
Oh, hey, today (Friday) used to have its station church be Santa Lucia in Septisolio, which was the one at the Septizonium (next to it). But that church is gone now, so the station church is Ss. John and Paul (the Roman martyr ones, not the evangelist and apostle ones).
There are some translations of three of the “Controversies” here (listed as Bellarmine’s Disputations, 2/3 of the way down the page) by a Professor of Philosophy and Classics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
https://aristotelophile.com/current.htm
The first has some interesting discussion on the canon.
Wonderful! Thank you!