In the last thirty years, and expecially in the last fifteen, the historical research on the Roman Inquisition has been considerably improved, leading to new approaches and opening new perspectives.

The topics of interest have been extended from the history of Reform and of the religious dissent, of censorship, of unique famous figures as Galilei and Bruno, to the history of popular culture, of magic and sorcery, to the cases of spontanoous sanctity and to the recent histories of Jewish and Muslim minorities. Long term researches and researches on institutional history started, that had no precedent, as it was clarified in the international conferences in Trieste (1988), Rome (1998, 1999), Montereale Valcellina (1999), Roma (2001, 2003, 2008).

A new step has been programmed too, from the eclesiastical history to the history of judicial proceedings in the Ancient Regimes and to the general history of culture and society: a step that has marked again, through the use of critical methodology and scientific debate, the overcoming of both the accusatory and apologetic interpretations of the Inquisition (the black and the white legend).

The opening of the Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede (Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), officially established in 1988, was an important step in that process, as well as the International Symposium on the Inquisition, organized in the Vatican City in 1988, by the Historical and Theological Commission for the Jubilee of 2000, and other initiatives promoted by the ecclesiastical authorities, such as the International seminars by the Historical Dominican Institute, on the relationshisp between the Order and the medieval Inquisition (2002), with the Spanish Inquisition (2004) and the Roman Inquisition (2006).