Index Librorum Prohibitorum
- Artist/Author/Producer: The Congregation of the Inquisition
- Confronting Bodies: Roman Catholic Church
- Dates of action: 1559
- Location: the World
- Description of the Art Work
- Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1559: The first list of banned and
recommended books. Books were condemned mostly for doctrinal reasons or
for criticizing or seeming to criticize the Papacy and the Church, or for
moral reasons.
- Description of incident
- 1559: Following earlier condemnation of books judged heretical, The
Congregation of the Inquisition (or Holy Office) of the Roman Catholic
Church published the first Index.
- Results of incident
- Other editions followed until 1948, with a supplement a little later.
1966: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Successor to the
Holy Office) under Pope Paul VI terminated publication; the Index thus
became no longer a list of works that Catholics were forbidden to read
because of possible corruption of faith and morals, but rather a historic
document.
Source: Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., by Anne Lyon Haight, and Chandler B.
Grannis, R.R. Bowker Co, 1978.
