Processus in Causa Fidei. L’evoluzione dei manuali inquisitoriali nei secoli XVI-XVIII e il manuale inedito di un inquisitore perugino (review)

Abstract

In the course of the renaissance in inquisitorial study now under way, a large variety of sources has been identified that directly enlightens us about the organization and activities of the Roman Inquisition and its peripheral tribunals. The most relevant are trials, sentences, the correspondence exchanged between the Supreme Congregation of the Inquisition in Rome and its outlying branches, or between the latter and its smaller outposts staffed by lower officials. These documents have long been available in Italian public and ecclesiastical libraries and archives, or dispersed abroad in such accessible repositories as the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris or Trinity College Library in Dublin. The recent, formal opening in January, 1998, of the Roman Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the former Holy Office) has made available in a long, virtually unbroken series an important new source, the decreta generated by the Cardinal Inquisitors at their weekly meetings in which they expressed opinions on the matters that had come before them, frequently pertaining to queries and requests for clarification submitted by the peripheral tribunals. The aforementioned records, the vast majority still available only in manuscript, help to illuminate the actual day-to-day practice of the Inquisition.