Abstract
Begun a little after 1950, the DIP has had three editorial teams and three editorial programmes. We know practically nothing about what place the sociology of religious orders was intended to have in the first project, since no records survive. The second project had a list of entries dealing with socio-historical themes, but none of them related to the sociology of religious orders. The third editorial team decided from the outset to devote a section entirely to the subject. In the course of the publication process (1969-1971), the work was enriched by the contributions of sociologists from religious, secular and lay backgrounds.