The Index

Just for fun, I decided to ILL a copy of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1930 edition). It arrived here while I was in Chicago.

Plenty of philosophers and Protestants made the list, of course. But here are some of the more intriguing entries I've found:

Chais, Charles. Bible (La sainte), ou le vieux et le nouveau testament avec un commentaire littéral composé de notes choisies et tirées de divers auteurs angloises. [As the introductory material in the Index insists, such Bibles were proscribed not because the Church hated vernacular translations but because they were exploited by Protestants; commentary from "various English authors" probably didn't help this one]

[Several other New Testament translations, including French, Dutch, Italian, and Piedmontese -- none, that I saw, in English]

Gerberon, Gabriel. Défense de l'église romaine contre les colomnies des protestans. [Gerberon may have defended the Church against Protestant calumnies, but he was also a Jansenist]

Hugo, Victor. Notre-Dame de Paris.

Algarotti, Francesco. Newtonisme (Le) pour les dames. [A book on optics, I am told]

Le Maistre de Sacy, Louis-Isaac. Office (L') de l'Église et de la Vierge en latin et en françois, avec les hymnes traduites en vers. [Sacy was another Jansenist, I believe]

Richardson, Samuel. Pamela, or virtue rewarded; in a series of familiar letters from a beautiful damsel to her parents. [A moralistic novel with some racy bits]

Relation of the proceedings against Henry Garnet, a jesuite, and his confederates, the traitors in the gunpowder plot.

| Posted by Wilson at 20:34 Central | TrackBack
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