Censorship & Retraction

Abstract

In seventeenth-century France, newspapers, which were subject to pre-publication censorship, served as instruments of propaganda for the monarchy, and the Gazette of Théophraste Renaudot was no exception. But in December 1633, he published a retraction for a public conference he held on the heliocentric system and included the Inquisition's sentence against Galileo and condemnation of the Copernican system, which were unknown to most scholars. This article takes the so-called retraction as a point of departure to examine his purpose in its publication and the flow of information between public and private channels. Letters and conference proceedings suggest he planned to call attention to the astronomical content of future conferences. Furthermore, be placed “privileged information” in the public domain. The possibility of censorship catalyzed French scholars to publish pro-Copernican texts abroad as well as in France by using evasive strategies.

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Notes on contributors

Jane T. Tolbert

JANE T. TOLBERT is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities and Communication at Florida Institute of Technology. This article was part of the research for her dissertation at the University of Florida, and the author would like to thank F. Leslie Smith for his comments and suggestions.