The range of this bibliography takes in:

Church History in Sixteenth Century Italy considering the relationship or influence of northern European church reform with church reform in Italy, especially prior to the Council of Trent, as well as recent historigraphy about the period;

with emphasis on documentary evidence in English translation where possible;

and also in reference to the context of 'Franciscan' history and its so called 'Capuchin Reform' in particular.

This is a personal bibliography and represents only a fraction of what has been published concerning Capuchin history and spirituality..

My own research began in "C" and gravitated to "A". "C" is a subset of "A". "A" tends towards a contextualisation of "C" and so promotes a broader understanding of it. Within this broader context it possible to step out of an approach that interprets 'Franciscan history' and its Capuchin reform as the history of an ideal and a history of ideas. These aspects are essential within the scope of the history of Franciscan spirituality. However, such an approach can suggest, unwittingly, that Franciscan history occurred in isolation from the history of peoples and societies of which the Franciscan family has been a part since its birth. Such a narrative runs the risk becoming a 'family history' with its own kind of introversion. There is further risk. Autobiographies of the Franciscan Family, in yesteryear often shaped by the influence of polemics or apologia, can represent the 'ideal' as a remote kind of abstraction bordering on pious fantasy, especially if an historical account becomes a hagiography of the Fraternity. The 'ideal', however, is historical - born within concrete, 'imperfect' lives and experiences of human beings whose nature we share. Ultimatley the broader contextualisation of the Capuchin reform amid the difficulties of the period is meant, therefore, to render the 'ideal' more concrete and attainable. In other words, this bibliography aims at promoting a critical approach to Capuchin history.

Paul Hanbridge (an idealist)