Thesaurus de la littérature interdite au XVIe siècle: Auteurs, ouvrages, éditions avec Addenda et corrigenda by Jesús Martínez De Bujanda with René Davignon, Ela Stanek, and Marcella Richter

Abstract

332BOOK REVIEWS Thesaurus de la littérature interdite au XVF siècle:Auteurs, ouvrages, éditions avecAddenda et corrigenda. ByJesús Martínez De Bujanda with the assistance of René Davignon, EIa Stanek, and MarceUa Richter. [Index des Uvres interdits, Volume X.] (Sherbrooke, Québec: Éditions de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Centre d'Études de la Renaissance; Geneva: Librairie Droz. 1996. Pp. 840. $80.00 Canadian.) Congratulations to Jesús Martínez De Bujanda and his exceUent team of collaborators who with the publication of this tenth volume bring to completion a project formaUy proposed in 1981 and launched in 1984 with the publication ofvolume 5. They have provided historians of religion, phUosophy, science, and literature with a major research tool that goes well beyond Die Indices Librorum Prohibitorum des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts published by Franz Heinrich Reusch (1825-1900) in 1886 and reprinted in 1961. WhUe they have added lists not found in Reusch's collection, they have not provided a new edition of his lists for England (pp. 5-22) or Liège (pp. 282-288) or Bavaria (pp. 328-341) or those issued by Vidal de Bécanis forToulouse (pp. 130-135) and by the Senate of Lucca (pp. 136-137). The criteria used for excluding these, while including others that are similar, remain unclear. The introduction provides a brief summary of what can be learned from the previous nine volumes about sixteenth-century book censorship for religious reasons in Catholic lands. Beginning in 1524 in the Low Countries with imperial placards and in 1526 in England with an archiépiscopal mandate, books Usted by author or title or both were condemned as heretical. But it was only with the faUure of the reUgious colloquies (1540-41) and the beginning of the CouncU ofTrent (convoked 1542, opened 1545) that the theological faculties of the universities of Paris (1544-45) and Louvain (1546) drew up extended lists of heretical works that were issued with the backing of civil authorities. These lists, subsequently revised, were incorporated into the indices compUed by the Portuguese and Spanish inquisitions. Under Paul IV a commission of the Roman Inquisition drew up an extensive Ust of forbidden books promulgated in 1559 that was considered in many Catholic quarters as too extreme. Although its content remained virtually unaltered, this index was modified on the urging of the Council ofTrent to allow for the expurgation of dangerous passages in otherwise useful books and for the reading of non-reUgious works authored by heretics. Local authorities were also permitted to add to the list titles of their own choosing. This so-called Index of the CouncU of Trent, issued in 1564 by Pius IV, was adopted by local authorities in Liège, Antwerp, Bavaria, Portugal, and Spain, although the latter two preserved their autonomy from Rome whUe so doing. When authorities in Antwerp (1571) and later in Spain (1584) acted on their own in deciding which passages were to be expurgated from heretical books, Rome moved to assert its prerogative of ajudicating doctrinal questions. In 1571 the Congregation of the Index was established to update the 1564 index and decide what needed expurgation. Responding, as Roman congregations did, to requests for advice, the new congregation drew up a list in 1576 BOOK REVIEWS333 which it circulated in manuscript form and which became the basis for local Italian indices that increasingly condemned works for immorality. Repeatedly revised, the index was formally promulgated in 1 596 by Clement VIII. It allowed for the expurgation ofhalfof the works condemned, set the rules for the way to expurgate, urged a co-ordination of local efforts with Rome, and allowed bishops , inquisitors, and universities to Ucense others to hold and read condemned works. By its censorship of books on the grounds of faith and morals, the Roman indices came to extend church control over many areas of intellectual and social life. The introduction also provides some statistical information based on the 2,150 author-identified and 1,092 anonymous works condemned in the various indices. The most frequently condemned of the 1,946 identified authors were Luther, Erasmus, Calvin, and Melanchthon. Three-fourths of all the 6,133 editions published by 1,354 printers...