This volume investigates the contribution of the major thinkers of the Minims to the emergence of new forms and styles of thought in early modern philosophy and science.

Motivated by multifaceted interests, some of them even different, Mersenne, Niceron and Maignan with their respective works bear significant witness to the intellectual life of a religious Order that, born in the spirit of a renewal that was above all ascetic and spiritual in character, was nevertheless by no means foreign to the cultural climate of the 17th century and, on the contrary, was fully involved in some of its most vivid questions.

Essays by: Jean-Robert Armogathe, Domenico Bosco, Claudio Buccolini, Agostino De Rosa, Leonardo Messinese, Luca Parisoli.