L’uso delle Visite pastorali e delle Relationes ad limina nello studio della storia della Chiesa sarda. Aspetti generali

Abstract

This essay, while acknowledging the lack of proper records and summaries of pastoral visits and ad limina reports, outlines the importance of these sources to trace back the history of the Sardinian church. The absence of specific studies on the area of the island, apart from some relevant contributions analysed herein, has encouraged certain researchers to use information from the visitationes contained in the relationes ad limina. In any way, an inventory, probably a computerised one, of the diocesan records of Sardinia, would ease the research of this type of historical source, which is really useful not only to get to know the ecclesiastical history of the island but also to look at other important aspects of civil life in the Sardinian society.