Abstract

In this first part of his contribution, whose second part will appear in «Cristianesimo nella storia», 3, 2020, the author reconstructs the development of the studies on Italian secular clergy in the period which extends from the first works of local erudition, mainly dedicated to the history of seminaries, until the period shortly after the Second World War, when this specific branch of research gained progressive attention among scholars of the history of religious phenomena. The survey will be completed by the author with the examination of studies after the nineteen-sixties and will be found in the second and final part of his contribution.