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The Roman Inquisition. A papal bureaucracy and its laws in the age of Galileo . By Thomas F. Mayer . Pp. v+385. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press , 2013. £52 ($79.95). 978 0 8122 4473 1
Reviews
Numerous studies and research projects on the Roman Inquisition have been undertaken since 1998, the year that the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (ACDF) was opened. The best known examples include the Dizionario storico dell'Inquisizione (DSI) edited by Adriano Prosperi, the project entitled Römische Inquisition und Indexkongregation,1542-1966 under the leadership of Hubert Wolf, Christopher F. Black's excellent study The Italian Inquisition and a new edition of the publication detailing the experience of Cardinal Giovanni Morone at the hands of the Roman Inquisition written by Massimo Firpo. These are very precise studies and research projects based on the best available sources located in the ACDF. However the majority of these works give little attention to an unusual source in the archive of the Roman Inquisition, namely the series of documents called Decreta sancti officii. These documents are the minutes of the meetings of the cardinals of the Congregation of the Holy Office. These meetings were held on Wednesdays (feria IV) and Thursdays (feria V), the latter usually in the presence of the pope. The documents are an excellent summary of the daily activity of the Congregation and its members. Often the minutes drafted by the notary consisted of just a few lines but they...