On the Origin, Development and Demise of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum

ABSTRACT

The history of Christian censorship up to the sixteenth century reveals scattered attempts to censor works of individual authors, but neither a systematic effort to formulate rules for regulating printers, booksellers, and authors, nor an effort to compile a comprehensive list of prohibited books. The first such attempt was made by the Council of Trent, which formulated a set of rules for printing, selling, and censoring books. These “Tridentine rules” were accompanied by a list of forbidden books, and together they formed the first Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1564). The Index underwent many revisions, the most important being the 1900 edition of Pope Leo XIII, which replaced the Tridentine rules with a set of Decreta Generalia on censoring and prohibiting books. Publication of the Index continued until its abolition in 1966. The reasons for its demise include the triumph of the Reformation and the rise of the nation-state, mass literacy, and mass communications.

KEYWORDS:

• Censorship–Catholic Church
• censorship–Christianity
• censorship–religious
• Index Librorum Prohibitorum
• Index of Forbidden Books
• Index of Prohibited Books
• bibliocide
• libricide