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ARCHIVES   

At present the research archives of Capistran materials that is housed at the Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University was brought together through the efforts of Fr. Gedeon Gal, OFM. Fr. Gedeon had been heading up work on the critical edition of the theological and philosophical writings of William of Ockham at the Institute. His interest in Capistran came from the fact that he was a member of the Hungarian Franciscan Province of St. John Capistran. The greater part of the material came from the research files of Ottokar Bonman who died before being able to start any actual editing work for an edition of Capistran. Knowing of Bonmann’s work Fr. Gedeon asked Fr. Conrad Harkins, OFM, then director of the Franciscan Institute, to request that Bonmann’s research be shipped to the Institute from Rome where it was being stored. Also while Fr. Conrad was on sabbatical in Italy Fr. Gedeon asked him to photocopy the manuscript of Capistran’s letters copied in the 1600’s by Antonio Sessa of Palermo that resides in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. That being done the copies were sent to the Franciscan Institute to join with the Bonmann materials to form the archives.