Alphonsus Ciacconius


Don Alphonsus Ciacconius was a Spanish Dominican scholar in Rome. His name is also spelt as Alfonso Chacón and Ciacono. Chacón is known mainly for two of his works: Historia utriusque belli dacici a Traiano Caesare gesti, and Vitae, et res gestae pontificum romanorum et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX. P.O.M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ordinis Praedicatorum & aliorum opera descriptae.

Works

Chacón was an expert on ancient Graeco-Roman and Paleo-Christian epigraphy, the Medieval paleography and manuscripts, besides the history of the papacy.
, Bishop of Eger from the book of Alphonsus Ciacconius, Historia Rom. Pontificum.
He named the tinctures after their Latin initials. Or was designated by A, argent or white, respectively by a, azure with c, gules by r, and vert by v. Though the sign for sable was not present in his system traditionally it was designated by the black colour itself.

Prophecy of the Popes controversy

The Benedictine historian Arnold Wyon attributed to Chacón the interpretations of the pre-1590 prophecies in the Prophecy of the Popes attributed to St. Malachy. The prophecy, including the attribution of the interpretations to Chacón, was first published in 1595 by Wion as part of his book Lignum Vitæ. But this attribution to Chacón was refuted in 1694 by Claude-François Menestrier, who pointed out that the prophecies are never mentioned in the original 1601 edition of Chacón's Lives of the Popes and Cardinals, nor in the later editions of 1630 and 1677 that included much new material by later authors, and that neither were his alleged interpretations of the alleged prophecies mentioned as part of his works when they were very comprehensively listed in both Nicolás Antonio's bibliography of Spanish writers, and Fr Ambroise de Altavera's bibliography of Dominican writers.