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Freedom of the Press? Catholic censorship during the Counter Reformation
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Becker, Sascha O., Pino, Francisco J. and Vidal-Robert, Jordi (2021) Freedom of the Press? Catholic censorship during the Counter Reformation. Working Paper. Coventry, UK: University of Warwick. Department of Economics. Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) (1356). (Unpublished)
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Official URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w...
Abstract
The Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century challenged the monopoly of the Catholic Church. The printing press helped the new movement spread its ideas well beyond the cradle of the Reformation in Luther’s city of Wittenberg. The Catholic Church reacted by issuing indexes of forbidden books which blacklisted not only Protestant authors but all authors whose ideas were considered to be in conflict with Catholic doctrine. We use newly digitized data on the universe of books censored by the Catholic Church during the Counter-Reformation, containing information on titles, authors, printers and printing locations. We classify censored books by topic (religion, sciences, social sciences and arts) and language and record when and where books were indexed. Our results show that Catholic censorship did reduce printing of forbidden authors, as intended, but also negatively impacted on the diffusion of knowledge, and city growth.
| Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | |||||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BR Christianity B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BV Practical Theology D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D901 Europe (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z004 Books. Writing. Paleography |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | |||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Reformation, Europe -- Intellectual life -- 16th century, Religious tolerance -- Early works to 1800, Freedom of religion -- Early works to 1800., Censorship -- Europe -- History -- 16th century, Counter-Reformation -- Europe, Human capital , Freedom of the press, Prohibited books -- Bibliography -- Early works to 1800., Index Librorum Prohibitorum, Censorship -- Europe -- Economic aspects -- 16th century | |||||||||
| Series Name: | Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) | |||||||||
| Publisher: | University of Warwick. Department of Economics | |||||||||
| Place of Publication: | Coventry, UK | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 0083-7350 | |||||||||
| Official Date: | April 2021 | |||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Number: | 1356 | |||||||||
| Institution: | University of Warwick | |||||||||
| Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | |||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | |||||||||
| Description: | This paper also appears as CAGE Discussion paper 562. |
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| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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