ABSTRACT
The second chapter takes the reader into the world of the Index and the Inquisition. It analyses the workings of ecclesiastical censorship, focusing on the relationship between the two institutions, on the reasons which led censors to condemn or to absolve some books, and on the world of censors. Particular attention is paid to the reform of the Index promoted by Benedict XIV, who does not appear to be the “Enlightened Pope” described by many scholars. He was able to renew the Index and, above all, to use new strategies with the objective of promoting self-censorship among authors. The censorial apparatus was not a well-oiled machine. However, despite its slowness, an important section of French, English and Italian Enlightenment was proscribed: for instance, Lettres persanes and L’Esprit des lois by Montesquieu, Encyclopédie by d’Alembert and Diderot, Candide and Traité sur la tolérance by Voltaire, Dei delitti e delle pene by Beccaria and History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon.
Keywords: Enlightenment; censorship; Inquisition; Index of Prohibited Books
