Benjamin Hazard brings together many years of research on the Irish Franciscan Luke Wadding, offering a comprehensive and coherent narrative that encompasses both the life and the works of a pivotal figure of early seventeenth-century Europe. The monograph enables the reader to appreciate how Wadding moved within multifaceted and highly interconnected spheres. As an Irish Catholic exile shaped by the upheavals of Protestant plantations in Ireland, Wadding received his higher education in Iberia, developed an outstanding career as a theologian and historian within the Franciscan Order, and became an agent of the Spanish Crown in Rome to support the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception against Dominican positions at the papal curia, settling in the Eternal City in 1618 for the rest of his life.

While defending the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, Wadding emerged as an esteemed and influential figure at the Roman curia. His agency involved him in a wide range of roles that testify to the complexity and fascination of this figure. As a member of the Franciscan Order, he was entrusted with a pivotal editorial activity that led to the publication of some of the most influential works in the Early Modern historiography of the Franciscan Order. His role, however, was by no means limited to his editorial activity on behalf of the Franciscans. In post-Tridentine Baroque Rome, as Hazard explains, Wadding constructed an extensive network of patronage among ecclesiastical and curial elites and was appointed rector of Sant'Isidoro, an Irish Franciscan college for exiles in Rome. At the same time, Wadding acted on behalf of the Irish Catholic cause, maintaining close relations from Rome with the religious and political networks of Irish communities both on the Continent and in Ireland.

Hazard sets out to integrate these multiple dimensions into a single narrative structured in ten chapters - organised chronologically, with thematic sections within each chapter - while consistently underpinning the narrative with primary sources, original research, and recent scholarship. The attempt to synthesise the complexity of Wadding's roles and the many facets of his career in a single volume of more than four hundred pages testifies to the impressive breadth of the author's research and to a considerable feat of synthesis.

In the first chapter, "Late Elizabethan Waterford", Hazard reconstructs Wadding's early life up to his departure for the Continent around 1588, situating his upbringing within the Catholic milieu of Waterford. Drawing primarily on the Annales Minorum and Francis Harold's Vita fratris Lucae Waddingi, Hazard contextualises Wadding's family background as part of the Old English Catholic community and emphasises his formation according to post-Tridentine devotional norms.

With "Apprenticeship in Portugal", Hazard follows Wadding's migration to Portugal with his elder brother Thomas at the age of fifteen, where he entered the Jesuit Irish College in Lisbon. The chapter situates Wadding within the wider system of Irish Catholic education in exile, developed since the 1570s, and traces his religious profession at the Franciscan Recollect friary of Matosinhos, under the provincial minister Pedro da São Francisco. Hazard then follows Wadding's advanced studies at Coimbra, highlighting the intellectual importance of Scotism at the university.

In the third chapter, "In the Kingdom of Castile", Hazard examines Wadding's academic career at the University of Salamanca, emphasising his emergence as a brilliant theologian and his involvement in the promotion of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, a cause strongly supported by the Spanish Crown.

In "To the City and the World", the focus shifts to Wadding's relocation to Rome and the decisive turning point represented by his involvement in Franciscan historiography. Hazard reconstructs Wadding's systematic manuscript research across Italy and shows how this work culminated in the annotated edition of Francis of Assisi's Opuscula, printed by Balthasar Moretus in Antwerp in 1623, an editorial achievement of lasting influence, despite the inclusion of spurious texts in the collection.

In the fifth chapter, "Powerhouse of Learning", Hazard analyses the foundation of the Irish College of Sant'Isidoro in Rome and Wadding's transformation of the institution into an exceptional centre of Franciscan learning and clerical formation within the broader network of Irish colleges on the Continent. Hazard clarifies how Wadding's ties with prominent Roman, Spanish, and Irish patrons left traces in the artistic and architectural embellishment of the complex of Sant'Isidoro, thereby providing enduring testimony to the cultural imprint left by Wadding and the Franciscan Irish community in Rome.

In the sixth chapter, "Forum of Books", Hazard examines Wadding's editorial strategies and his transnational collaborations with printers across Europe, focusing particularly on his continuous publication of the volumes of the Annales Minorum, the monumental annalistic chronicle of the Franciscan Order, and the edition of the Opera Omnia of John Duns Scotus - the Franciscan theologian who articulated the most influential scholastic defence of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and whom Wadding and his companions regarded as Irish.

With "At the Papal Curia", the monograph turns increasingly to Wadding's political and ecclesiastical agency under Urban VIII. Hazard highlights his influential role in episcopal appointments for Irish bishoprics, owing to the standing he enjoyed within the Holy Office and the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. As Hazard explains among Wadding's major achievements, his activity as consultor to the Congregation of Rites resulted in the inclusion of St Patrick in the universal calendar and the rehabilitation of James the Great as Apostle of Spain in the Roman breviary, contrary to the early opposition of Bellarmine and Baronius.

In the eighth chapter, "War in Ireland", Hazard explores Wadding's correspondence and political engagement during the Confederate Wars, analysing his role as Rome-based representative of the Confederation of Kilkenny and his efforts to defend Irish Catholic interests. This represents the peak of Wadding's influence at the Roman curia, but the death of Urban VIII in 1644 marked the turning of the tide in his career. As Hazard explains, the appointment by Innocent X of the archbishop of Fermo, Rinuccini, as nuncio in Ireland jeopardised the diplomatic efforts made to reach a treaty with the Marquis of Ormond and the Protestant royalists. The ensuing breakdown of the treaty and the division of the Confederation into two opposing Irish factions, the Old Gaelic and Old English, marked a decline in Wadding's influence.

In "Troubled Waters on the Tiber", Hazard addresses the criticisms levelled against Wadding during the final decade of his life, particularly the charge that he favoured the Old English faction both in Ireland and at Sant'Isidoro (274). Hazard relates Wadding's declining influence at Sant'Isidoro to the election of the Gaelic friar Paul King as the new guardian of Sant'Isidoro and to the manoeuvres of Dionisio Massari, secretary to Rinuccini, within the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. The growing tensions in Rome are thus presented as reflecting the political and ecclesiastical developments in Ireland. Despite the decline of his political influence, Wadding continued his historiographical work and theological activity through other important editorial projects, including the publication of the Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, while adopting a moderate position in the Jansenist controversy.

In the final chapter, "I Lay Down My Pen", Hazard examines Wadding's last years under Innocent X, his ongoing tensions with Rinuccini's party at the papal curia, and his final achievements, notably the promotion of a project for a new Irish novitiate at Capranica and the publication of volume VIII of the Annales Minorum, which extended Wadding's monumental narrative of the Franciscan Order to 1540, allowing him to "examine the Reformation from a Franciscan perspective, whilst also recording the organisation of the order's provinces in the New World" (333).

In conclusion, Hazard's monograph restores Luke Wadding as a central and complex actor within the religious, intellectual, and political landscapes of early seventeenth-century Catholic Europe. The study emphasises the balanced and cohesive approach that Wadding adopted in both his historiographical and diplomatic activity; the latter was largely driven by the aim of supporting Irish interests and mediating internal divisions, in contrast to the course taken by Rinuccini within the Irish Confederation. The volume is supplied with a substantial bibliography and a detailed index. The inclusion of visual material also helps to contextualise the themes explored in the book.

Andrea Mancini