  We present a deep optical/near-infrared imaging survey of the Serpens
molecular cloud. This survey constitutes the complementary optical data to the
Spitzer "Core To Disk" (c2d) Legacy survey in this cloud. The survey was
conducted using the Wide Field Camera at the Isaac Newton Telescope. About 0.96
square degrees were imaged in the R and Z filters, covering the entire region
where most of the young stellar objects identified by the c2d survey are
located. 26524 point-like sources were detected in both R and Z bands down to
R=24.5 mag and Z=23 mag with a signal-to-noise ratio better than 3. The 95%
completeness limit of our catalog corresponds to 0.04 solar masses for members
of the Serpens star forming region (age 2 Myr and distance 260 pc) in the
absence of extinction. Adopting the typical extinction of the observed area
(Av=7 mag), we estimate a 95% completeness level down to 0.1 solar masses. The
astrometric accuracy of our catalog is 0.4 arcsec with respect to the 2MASS
catalog. Our final catalog contains J2000 celestial coordinates, magnitudes in
the R and Z bands calibrated to the SDSS photometric system and, where
possible, JHK magnitudes from 2MASS for sources in 0.96 square degrees in the
direction of Serpens. This data product has been already used within the frame
of the c2d Spitzer Legacy Project analysis in Serpens to study the star/disk
formation and evolution in this cloud; here we use it to obtain new indications
of the disk-less population in Serpens.
