Church and Censorship in Eighteenth-Century Italy : Governing Reading in the Age of Enlightenment

Dealing with the issue of ecclesiastical censorship and control over reading and readifers, this study challenges the traditional view that during the eighteenth century the Catholic Church in Italy undiferwent an inexorable decline. It reconstructs the strategies used by the ecclesiastical leadifership to regulate the press and culture during a century characterized by important changes, from the spread of the Enlightenment to the creation of a state censorship apparatus. Based on the archival records of the Roman Inquisition and the Congregation of the Index of Forbidden Books preserved in the Vatican, it provides a comprehensive analysis of the Catholic Church's endeavour to keep literature and reading in check by means of censorship and the promotion of a "good" press. The crisis of the Inquisition system did not imply a general diminution of the Church's involvement in controlling the press. Rather than being effective instruments of repression, the Inquisition and the Index combined to create an ideological apparatus to resist new ideas and to direct public opinion. This was a network mainly inspired by Counter-Enlightenment principles which would go on to influence the Church's action well beyond the eighteenth century. This book is an English translation of Il governo della lettura: Chiesa e libri nell'Italia del Settecento (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2007) Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Abbreviations 10 Acknowledgments 12 Note to the English Edition 14 Introduction 16 1 From the Spoken to the Written Word 24 1. Paper Threats 25 2. The Dangers of Individual Reading 29 3. Disbelief, the Sin of the Century 33 4. Hidden Poisons: on Novels and Pleasure Books 36 5. New Readers for a Deluge of Libels 43 2 The World of the Index 68 1. From Censorship to Self-Censorship: Benedict XIV’s Proposal 70 2. Heresies of the Enlightenment 75 3. Jurisdictionalist Thinkers, Deists, Atheists “or Something Like That” 82 4. Short Stories and Poems, Comedies and Novels 87 5. Friar Ambrogio and the Others: the Universe of Censors 93 6. The Rules of the Game: from Book-Burning to Silence 98 3 Hunting for Books 130 1. Circular Letters from the Holy Office in Rome 131 2. Inquisitorial Edicts 135 3. Spiritual Weapons for the Peninsula: the Appeal to Bishops 142 4. From Bishops to Priests 146 5. Sermons to Believers 153 4 In Pursuit of Public Opinion 176 1. The New Book War 178 2. Ecclesiastical Patronage: Writing and Censoring 183 3. The Index and the Printing Press 187 4. Uses of the Periodical Press 190 5. Antidotes Against the “Itch to Philosophise” 195 6. Protecting the Eyes to Protect the Soul 200 7. On Good Books and Ways of Reading 204 Conclusion 238 Index 252