Inquisition, Index, Zensur

This volume documents the DFG symposium held in Frankfurt in May 2000, which offered, for the first time in the German-speaking lands, a representative selection of studies by international researchers based on material from the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which had only just been made generally accessible to scholars.

The volume includes contributions on the Galileo trial (Francesco Beretta), the attitude of the Catholic Church towards the natural sciences in general (Ugo Baldini), the sensational Carnesecchi trial (Massimo Firpo) and the mitigating role of the Roman Inquisition in the persecution of witches (Rainer Decker). In addition, the volume contains fundamental contributions on the source material (Alejandro Cifres, John Tedeschi), and the prosopography of the staff of the Inquisition and the Congregation of the Index (Herman H. Schwedt). Peter Schmidt investigated the "intercultural management" practises the Inquisition used to control long-distance trade in the early modern period. In addition, a picture of the internal discussions on book censorship within the Roman Congregation of the Index was sketched for the first time (Maria Antonietta Passarelli, Claus Arnold). In conclusion, the reception of the Roman book bans in Germany was also brought into focus (Dominik Burkard).

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Hubert WOLF (ed.), Inquisition, Index, Zensur. Wissenskulturen der Neuzeit im Widerstreit, Paderborn et alibi 2001 (2nd extended ed. 2003), 340 pages, hardcover, ISBN: 978-3-506-77670-9.