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Rangila Rasul, a communal diatribe masquerading as an innocuous ‘celebration’ of the ‘Prophet of Many Wives’ published in 1924 was proscribed in 1927 for promoting feelings of hatred against the Muslims of India. Its editors defended the publication as factual in content, measured in tone, and modernising in intent. Providing a scholarly scrutiny of this bold defence, this article juxtaposes the offensive tract with laws regulating age of marriage introduced by reformers at the time, on the one hand, and works of Hindu sexology providing lessons on conjugal modernisation and marital masculinity, on the other. It finds that the contents of the tract did share a common ground with legislative social reform, just as its ‘frank’ discussion of sex matched the tone of the sex manuals ubiquitous at the time. Acontextual reading of these seemingly dissimilar texts suggest that if the private purpose of the sexmanual was to promote eugenic sex and modern marriage, its political life was driven by the abjection of forms of sexuality and conjugality viewed as ‘abnormal’, which were rhetorically ascribed to a host of ‘others’ – especially the stereotyped Muslim of the Hindu nationalist imagination. This article thus reveals an unacknowledged genealogy of marital modernity in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about catholic readers in the early modern world and prohibited books being circulated in Counter-Reformation Italy. Topics discussed include early modern readers being able to apply for licenses to read the prohibited books, censorship laws of the time period, and the book "Catholic Church and Modern Science" by Ugo Baldini and Leen Spruit.

The works of Guido da Verona were proscribed in the Index of Prohibited Books in 1920, thus receiving unexpected publicity from the Vatican’s ban. In 1930, on the contrary, the controversies which followed the publication of the irreverent parody of Alessandro Manzoni’sI promessi sposi marked the rapid decline of Da Verona’s career. This essay discusses Guido da Verona’s struggle with both ecclesiastical and fascist censorship, thus highlighting the effects of book forbiddance on the Italian literary canon of the early twentieth century and of its impact on the definition of an Italian national literature. Finally, the article reflects on the central role played by book censorship in the context of the tense political relationship between Pius XI and Mussolini in the wake of the Concordat of 1929. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The article presents a report on a panel on the relationship between knowledge and religious orthodoxy convened during the Historikertag, the annual history congress of the Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands (VHD) and Verband der Geschichtslehrer Deutschlands (VGD) professional associations in Göttingen, Germany, from September 20 to 23, 2016. Topics discussed included public opinion of the "Decretum Gelasianum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendi" list of banned medieval books, the interpretation of prognostc texts in the Carolingian era, and the illustrated bible by Dutch religious scholar Willem Goeree.

Copyright of Rivista di Storia del Cristianesimo is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article chronicles the life of Gaspar Zapata, a Spanish printer of prohibited books and religious dissenter pursued by the Spanish Inquisition. The author comments on Zapata's interactions with several important leaders in the anti-Catholic movement in Seville, Spain, during the second half of the 16th century. He cites several documents that detail Zapata's relationship with dissenters both in Spain and throughout Europe. The attempts to reform Zapata by the Spanish government is also considered. A series of documents related to Zapata's anti-Catholicism is reprinted.

The article traces how the 18th-century history of the Knights Hospitaller "Histoire des chevaliers hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem, appellez depuis les chevaliers de Rhodes, at aujoud'hui les chevaliers de Malte," written by the French historian Abbé René Aubert de Vertot d'Aubœuf in 1726, came to be disavowed by the Knights of Malta and added to the list of banned books maintained by the Catholic Church. The author provides biographical background information about Vertot, details the decision-making process and reasons for the refusal of the order to endorse the book, and the censorship process initiated by the papal administration. He also suggests connections to the broader history of the order's rule of the island of Malta.

This article discusses diplomatic immunity during the Spanish Inquisition in the 18th and 19th centuries. It examines the role of the Santo Oficio, or the Holy Office, which often raided Spanish homes on the suspicion that they contained books prohibited by the government. The author analyzes the diplomatic conflicts caused by such raids on the belongings of foreign diplomats, who were granted special rights and privileges according to various international treaties. He also studies the diplomats' influence in the government's review, revision, and rectification of these Inquisitorial commissions and their actions.