Renaissance inquisitors : Dominican inquisitors and inquisitorial districts in Northern Italy, 1474-1527 / / by Michael Tavuzzi.

• Superior document: Studies in the history of Christian traditions, v. 134
• Author: Tavuzzi, Michael M.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the history of Christian traditions ; v. 134.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-275) and index.
• ISBN: 1281936219; 9786611936211; 9047420608
• ISSN: 1573-5664
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Michael Tavuzzi.

During the Renaissance there was no centralized Inquisition in northern Italy until Pope Paul III founded the Roman Inquisition in 1542, but there was a dense network of autonomous papal inquisitors. Based on extensive archival research, this study investigates the life of the Dominican friars from whom these inquisitors were mostly drawn. It focuses on a selection of hitherto almost unknown but representative inquisitors to cast new light on their formation, appointment and careers, as well as their principal pursuits - the prosecution of heretics, especially Waldensians and Judaizers, and, most of all, the hunting of witches, for it was at its most intense in northern Italy during the Renaissance, over a century before reaching its peak in Northern Europe.