Official publications of the Spanish Inquisition are voluminous due to the careful record maintained and published by the numerous actors involved in fulfilling the Inquisition's mission over its three-hundred year span. These actors included the Papacy, Spanish Crown, Inquisitor General, and provincial and new world tribunals. Each group published extensively on a variety of topics ranging from questions of jurisdiction to the dissemination of codes of conduct at the local level to verbatim records of trial proceedings. Documents from each of these offices can be found in the collection.

The collection contains nine Inquisitional proceedings against individuals in Mexico and Spain. The most important of these proceedings is a 1538 case heard in Mexico as proceedings only began in Mexico in 1522. Three other proceedings are also from Mexico.

The largest number of official publications found in the collection come from the provincial holy offices. A majority of these documents deal with the prohibition of books throughout Spain and the New World. In most cases, individual authors, books or pamphlets are singled out for prohibition or expurgation.

In an attempt to standardize procedures of the Inquisition, a number of forms were created. The collection includes a variety of these documents. These include a register for confiscated goods (204), a form used in Mexico to document the initiation of proceedings against the accused (237), Numerous documents from all jurisdictions identify prohibited and expurgated books.

#204 - Escritura de confiscación de bienes

#237 - Inquisición de México

The Inquisition Collection is housed in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Notre Dame. For questions about the Collection or comments about this site please write to rarebook.1@nd.edu, or call (574) 631-5610 between 8am and 5pm EST.