Il libro delle province francescane: uno speciale atlante per la storia del territorio. La Marca Anconitana nei secoli XIV-XVIII

The study aims to analyse the territorialisation process carried out over the centuries by the Franciscan Friars, focusing on those speci c historical periods, which mainly in uenced the political, social and economic Italian history. The research has been developed taking into account a unique Franciscan source, the Provinciale Ordinis Fratrum Minorum S. Francisci Conventualium by Antonio Francesco Righini. The volume is kept in the Archive and Library of the General Curia of the Twelve Holy Apostles of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, in Rome. This volume, although being a statistical series, can be com- pared to the atlases of the other religious orders created during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It can be also analysed from other different points of view, in order to Know its author and carto- graphical references used by him; to illustrate the different historical periods which represented the evolution of territorialisation process realised by the Friars Minor Conventual from 14th to 18th century. Finally, a GIS method has been applied to create some tools that show this process considering the Italian Peninsula and especially a par- ticular case study: the Province of the Marchiae Anconitanae.