Hesburgh Libraries > Rare Books & Special Collections > Collections > Hispanic

The Inquisition Collection

Detail showing the emblem of the Spanish Inquisition from a hand-decorated certificate of a familiar.

Purchased in 1996 from Libreria José Porrua Turanzas in Madrid, Spain, through an estate gift of Harley L. McDevitt (ND '29), this collection includes more than 550 items relating to the Spanish, Portuguese and Roman Inquisitions. It was assembled over many years by the late father of José Porrua Turanzas, who built upon a collection that he had acquired from an earlier Spanish collector, Anastasio Páramo.

The collection may be divided into eight major categories:

  • inquisitor's manuals (13 items)

  • indices of prohibited and expurgated books (9 items)

  • relaciones of autos-da-fé (46 items)

  • records of inquisitorial tribunals (208 items)

  • certificates of familiars (27 items)

  • engravings and other artwork (4 items)

  • early commentaries and histories of the inquisitions (80 items)

  • modern secondary works and critical studies of the inquisitions (133 items)

Highlights of the collection are featured in an online exhibit which includes a searchable database containing information on individual items and instructions on how to download an inventory-catalog of the collection. Nearly all of the items have received at least preliminary cataloging treatment and therefore have records in the ND Libraries online catalog; a keyword search for "mcdevitt inquisition collection" will list those housed in Special Collections; secondary works that were part of the original collection have been fully cataloged and are available in the general circulating collection.

Additional background and information about the acquisition of the McDevitt Collection on the Inquisitions may be found in an article which appeared in the February 1997 issue of Access, the quarterly newsletter of the University Libraries of Notre Dame. Biographical information on the benefactor, Harley L. McDevitt, may be found in the University Libraries' Endowment Directory.