The Ecclesiastical Censorship of Books, 1400–1800
An Exhibition at Bridwell Library, September 20 – December 17, 2010
THE
INDEX OF PROHIBITED BOOKS
23.
Pius IV (b. 1499,
Pope 1559–1565). Index librorum
prohibitorum, cum regulis
confectis per patres à
Tridentina Synodo delectos,
auctoritate sanctiss. D.N. Pii
IIII, Pont. Max. comprobatus.
Lyon: Gulielmus Rovillius, 1564.
[Bound
with:] Council of Trent (1545–1563). Canones,
et decreta sacrosancti
oecumenici et generalis
Concilii Tridentini. Lyon: Gulielmus
Rovillius, 1564.
The 1564 Tridentine Index defined three basic classes of prohibited books:
Class I: Books by heretical
authors, all of whose writings are
prohibited.
Class II: Individual
prohibited books, classified alphabetically by
author.
Class III: Anonymous
prohibited books, classified alphabetically by
title.
During its first century of
existence the Index librorum
prohibitorum listed condemned books in an
alphabetical sequence subdivided into the three
classes of prohibition. For example, in the
exhibited Lyon edition of the 1564 Index,
under the letter P, authors of Class I were listed
first by name, books in Class II were listed next by
author, and anonymous works in Class III were listed
last by title. Beginning in 1664, every book in the
Index was listed in a single continuous
alphabetical sequence, regardless of its class.
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