Before this, there was no centralised means for collecting Inquisition papers, and it is generally believed that all or almost all important documents have been lost or even deliberately destroyed.
Probably the best known case is the 1944 and 1957 revelations by Fatima seer Lúcia dos Santos, but there exist numerous other documents of this type placed in the archives whose content was partially known before being placed there.
Even the pro-Papal historian Ludwig von Pastor could not use the Inquisition archive in writing his massive History of the Popes since the End of the Middle Ages.
In 1979, a request was made to Pope John Paul II by historian Carlo Ginzburg, an atheist from Jewish background, to open the Inquisition Archives.
Since 1998 the Vatican has failed to issue any document stating either that post-1903 material will never be released (presumably to protect doctrinal orthodoxy) or that it may in the future open post-1903 Inquisition archives.