A Book Against Books -BY AWAKE! WRITER IN ITALY

Conclusion of What Kind of Books Forbidden?

With this edition the Index of Forbidden Books acquired a more or less stable form, despite continual updating throughout the centuries.  Many Protestants, who saw their works included, defined the Index as "the best guide to identifying the most desirable books."  It has to be said, however, that at the time, the ideas of Protestantism were much the same as those of Catholicism when it came to censorship of books.

The Index had a disastrous effect on culture, which in countries like Italy withdrew "into cramped isolation," says historian Antonio Rotondo.  Another historian Guido Dall'Olio, says that the index was " one of the principal factors in the great cultural backwardness of Italy, in relation to most other parts of Europe."  Ironically, some books survived because they ended up in a special place, the so-called inferno, a location created in many ecclesiastical libraries to keep prohibited literature under and key. 

Gradually, though, the new role of public opinion in the age of enlightenment played its part in the demise of the "most imposing repressive apparatus ever fielded against editorial freedom."  In 1766 an Italian editor wrote:  "Rome's prohibitions do not decide the merit of books.  The public decides."  The Index was losing importance, and in 1917 the Congregation of the Index, which cared for it, was dissolved.  Since 1966 the Index "no longer has the force of ecclesiastical law with its related censures."

Next time: A Book Against Books - BY AWAKE! WRITER IN ITALY/The Bible in  Common Languages

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