One wonderful library closes, another one opens. On the same page of the *Times
Higher Education Supplement* that told of the closing of the Chantilly library,
one finds an article announcing that the archive of the Catholic Church's
Inquisition, covering heresy and witchcraft trials from 1542 to 1903, is open to
the general public of scholars for the first time. Although a chosen few have
been given access in recent years, this marks a new *apertura* to the public, and
it is welcomed by all of us involved in medieval (alright, and
Counter-Reformation and early modern) scholarship.
We have Napoleon to thank for us NOT having the transcriptions of most
Inquisition trials, however. He took them away to Paris, where between 1815 and
1817 they were destroyed. What remains, however, isn't too bad: the complete
collection of the transcripts of all Inquisition meetings held from 1542 to 1903.
(Records after that date are not yet accessible.)
George
George Ferzoco tel ++ 44 (0)116 252 2654
Director of Studies for Italian fax ++ 44 (0)116 252 3633
University of Leicester e-mail [log in to unmask]
School of Modern Languages
LEICESTER LE1 7RH UNITED KINGDOM
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