Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Date: 1559
Region: Europe
Subject: Religious
Medium: Literature
Artist: The Congregation of the Inquisition
Confronting Bodies: The Roman Catholic Church
Date of Action: 1559
Location: The Vatican
Description of Artwork: 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.
The 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.
