RICERCHE RELIGIOSE. - A monthly review of historical-religious studies founded by E. Buonaiuti in 1925 (and condemned in that same year), after its founder had incurred censorship in 1924. Alongside subjects of historical-critical content, it also contains polemical themes and perspectives of a mystical kind, in keeping with Buonaiuti’s intellectual orientation.
In 1934 it changed its title to Religio, which had already belonged to another periodical of hierographic studies that had a brief existence (1919–20). Publication of the R. r. was interrupted by the events of the Second World War and, after the death of its founder (1947), was resumed as the quarterly organ of an « Associazione Ernesto Buonaiuti », directed by a committee of university professors, with Dr M. Niccoli as editorial secretary. The Association’s principal purpose, apart from all polemic and particular mystical viewpoints, is « to spread scientific knowledge of the history of Christianity within the framework of the religions of the Mediterranean world and to arouse an ever keener interest in historical-religious studies in general ». Three annual volumes have so far appeared (1952).