In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The Catholic Historical Review 89.1 (2003) 102-104



[Access article in PDF]
Church, Censorship and Culture in Early Modern Italy. Edited by Gigliola Fragnito; translated by Adrian Belton. [Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2001. Pp. x, 264. $59.95.)

The most important result of the official opening of the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (ACDF) in January, 1998, was the discovery that the records of the Congregation of the Index are extraordinarily rich. Scholars are now able to follow the deliberations of censors, cardinals, popes, and others, as they debated which authors and books should be prohibited or expurgated, and whether the rules were implemented. This volume of studies by nine well-known Italian historians concentrates on the period 1550-1610, the crucial years in which the indexes of 1559, 1564, and 1596, and the single Roman Index expurgatorius of 1602, were drafted, and conflicts resolved. The use of the chronologically meaningless "early modern" in the title does not reflect the book's content.

Gigliola Fragnito begins with an excellent study of decision-making in the Congregation of the Index, especially the failed attempt to decentralize expurgation. At the time of the Clementine Index of 1596 the Congregation wanted local bishops to assume authority in censorship matters, including expurgation. It directed bishops to create and to preside over local committees, which [End Page 102] would supervise censorship and expurgate according to the rules. Decentralization did not work for several reasons. Many small dioceses lacked the expertise or even the ecclesiastical structure to expurgate. When they did, the quality of expurgation was uneven. Some laymen pressed into service hesitated to "mutilate" books. University scholars were reluctant to participate. No pay was offered for a time-consuming task. Delays in getting answers from the Congregation in Rome on some questions slowed work. Most important, there was the feeling that expurgators were laboring on texts that would never be reprinted because the market for them had waned, or they would be banned anyway. Eventually the Congregation in Rome took over and issued a single Index expurgatorius in 1602 for about fifty authors, the only expurgation index produced in Italy. Fragnito tells the story well. Along the way, she questions some long-held assumptions about the deleterious impact of censorship on Italian culture. For example, she notes that the evidence suggests that "the expulsion of Erasmus from Italian culture was less radical and less rapid than is usually believed" (p. 30).

Several articles assess the impact on different genres. Ugo Baldini surveys the condemnation of books on astrology. While astrological books were first condemned in 1559, and denounced again by Sixtus V in 1586, little was done because of their popularity. But eventually the Church's prohibitions, even when not enforced, helped bring about the decline of astrology in the seventeenth century. The prohibitions helped separate astrology from the legitimate science of astronomy. As Baldini cautiously notes, this might be a case in which censorship supported a useful scientific purpose. Claudio Donati describes the censorship of books on dueling. The Council of Trent banned duels. But the Tridentine Index did not ban books about duels, because books telling a gentleman what he must do, and not do, when his honor was impugned were needed. The Clementine Index of 1596 banned books on dueling, but permitted them in expurgated form if they would prove useful in settling controversies and fostering peace. But no expurgation was done. Inquisitors permitted lay persons to hold books on duels, and they continued to circulate.

Rodolfo Savelli studies the attempts to ban or expurgate law books written by Protestants or containing objectionable material. As might be expected, the censors did not like legal treatises promoting conciliarism, or some parts of Roman law dealing with marriage. The censors concentrated on French and German jurists who had written after the appearance of Luther and Calvin. The Congregation of the Index was more permissive about Protestant jurists, the Congregation of the Holy Office sterner. Not a great deal of expurgation was accomplished...

pdf

Share