List of authors and works on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum


This is a selected list of authors and works listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The Index was discontinued on June 14, 1966 by Pope Paul VI.
A complete list of the authors and writings present in the subsequent editions of the index are listed in J. Martinez de Bujanda, Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1600–1966, Geneva, 2002.
The Index includes entries for single or multiple works by an author, all works by an author in a given genre or dealing with a given topic. The scope of the prohibition is defined by a Latin phrase in the Index:
The Index includes entries banning all works of a particular writer. Most of these were inserted in the Index at a time when the Index itself stated that the prohibition of someone's "opera omnia" did not cover works whose contents did not concern religion and were not forbidden by the general rules of the Index, but this explanation was omitted in the 1929 edition, an omission that was officially interpreted in 1940 as meaning that thenceforth "opera omnia" covered all the author's works without exception.

List of authors and works in the final edition, with later additions

This is a selected list of the authors and works appearing in the final published edition of the Index in 1948, with later additions until the Index was discontinued in 1966.
BannedNameWorksRef.
1600Bruno, GiordanoOpera omnia
1626, 1657, 1658,
1659, 1672		Grotius, HugoOpera omnia theologica;
De Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra ;
Annales et historiae de rebus belgicis ;
+6 more
1645Browne, ThomasReligio Medici; the religion of a physician
1649Hobbes, ThomasOpera omnia
1657, 1789Pascal, BlaiseLettres provinciales ;
Pensées, with notes by Voltaire
1659Calvin, JohnLexicon iuridicum iuris caesarei simul et canonici
1663Descartes, RenéMeditations ;
Les passions de l'âme ;
Opera philosophica. Donec corrig.;
+4 more
1667Leti, GregorioOpera omnia
1668Bacon, Francis De dignitate et augmentis scientiarum libri IX. Donec corrig.
1676Montaigne, Michel deEssays
1679, 1690Spinoza, BaruchTractatus Theologico-Politicus ;
Opera posthuma
1684Eriugena, Johannes Scotus De divisione naturae libri quinque diu desiderati
1689, 1707, 1712Malebranche, NicolasTraité de la nature et de la grace ;
Traité de morale ;
+4 more
1694, 1758Milton, JohnLiterae pseudo-senatus anglicani, Cromwellii reliquorumque perduellium nomine ac iussu conscriptae ;
Paradise Lost
1703La Fontaine, Jean deContes et Nouvelles
1717Maimonides'Tractate on Idolatry from the Mishneh Torah with notes by Dionysius Vossius'
1729Addison, JosephRemarks on Several Parts of Italy
1734, 1737Locke, JohnAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding ;
The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures
1738Swedenborg, EmanuelPrincipia
1742Berkeley, GeorgeAlciphron, or The Minute Philosopher
1743Defoe, DanielThe Political History of the Devil
1744Richardson, SamuelPamela, or Virtue Rewarded
1751, 1762MontesquieuLettres Persanes ;
De l'esprit des lois
1752, 1753, 1757,
1761, 1762, 1765,
1766, 1768, 1769,
1771, 1773, 1776,
1779		VoltaireCandide ;
Traité sur la tolérance ;
Lettres philosophiques ;
+38 more
1758, 1804Diderot, DenisEncyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers ;
Jacques le fataliste et son maître
1758d'Alembert, Jean le RondEncyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
1759, 1774Helvétius, Claude AdrienDe l'Esprit ;
De l'homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles et de son éducation
1761Hume, DavidOpera omnia
1762, 1766, 1806,Rousseau, Jean-JacquesÉmile, ou de l'éducation ;
Du contrat social ;
Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse
1764Kollár, Adam František De originibus et usu perpetuo potestatis legislatoriae circa sacra apostolicorum regum Ungariae
1766Beccaria, CesareDei Delitti e delle pene
1783Gibbon, EdwardDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire
1815, 1840, 1859,
1863, 1866, 1896		Michelet, Jules6 titles
1817Darwin, ErasmusZoonomia; or The Laws of Organic Life
1819Sterne, LaurenceA Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
1827Condorcet, Nicholas deSketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind
1827Kant, ImmanuelCritique of Pure Reason
1828StendhalOmnes fabulae amatoriae
1834, 1837, 1838,
1841, 1843, 1846,		Lamennais, Hugues Felicité Robert de7 works
1834Casanova, GiacomoMémoires
1835Bentham, JeremyDeontology, or The science of morality ;
+3 more
1836Heine, HeinrichReisebilder;
De l'Allemagne;
De la France
1840Sand, GeorgeOmnes fabulae amatoriae
1841Balzac, Honoré deOmnes fabulae amatoriae
1849Gioberti, VincenzoOpera omnia
1852Proudhon, Pierre-JosephOpera omnia
1856Mill, John StuartPrinciples of Political Economy
1859, 1860, 1863,
1866, 1869, 1877,
1881, 1882, 1884,
1891, 1892,		Renan, Ernest19 titles
1863, 1880Dumas, Alexandre Omnes fabulae amatoriae;
La question du divorce
1863Dumas, Alexandre Omnes fabulae amatoriae
1864Comte, AugusteCours de philosophie positive
1864Flaubert, GustaveMadame Bovary ;
Salammbô
1873Larousse, PierreGrand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle
1876Draper, John WilliamHistory of the Conflict between Religion and Science
1894Zola, ÉmileOpera omnia
1911, 1928, 1935,
1939		D'Annunzio, GabrieleOmnia opera dramatica;
Omnes fabulae amatoriae;
+3 more
1914Bergson, HenriEssai sur les données immédiates de la conscience;
Matière et mémoire; essai sur la relation du corps à l'esprit;
L'évolution créatrice
1914Maeterlinck, MauriceOpera omnia
1922France, AnatoleOpera omnia
1931van de Velde, Theodoor HendrikHet volkomen huwelijk
1948Sartre, Jean-PaulOpera omnia
1952Gide, AndréOpera omnia
1952Moravia, AlbertoOpera omnia
1953Kazantzakis, NikosThe Last Temptation of Christ
1956de Beauvoir, SimoneThe Second Sex ;
The Mandarins

Reversals and non-inclusions

There have been cases of reversal with respect to works that were on the Index, such as those of Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei. The Inquisition's ban on reprinting Galileo's works was lifted in 1718 when permission was granted to publish an edition of his works in Florence. In 1741 Pope Benedict XIV authorised the publication of an edition of Galileo's complete scientific works which included a mildly censored version of the Dialogue. In 1758 the general prohibition against works advocating heliocentrism was removed from the Index of prohibited books, although the specific ban on uncensored versions of the Dialogue and Copernicus's De Revolutionibus remained. All traces of official opposition to heliocentrism by the church disappeared in 1835 when these works were finally dropped from the Index.
Not on the Index were Aristophanes, Juvenal, John Cleland, James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence. According to Wallace et al., this was because the primary criterion for banning the work was anticlericalism, blasphemy and heresy.
Some authors whose views are generally unacceptable to the Church were never put on the Index; nor was Charles Darwin.
Works that were included in the Index, and later removed, include:
BannedNameWorksRef.
1585Dante AlighieriDe Monarchia ?
1616 to 1835Nicolaus CopernicusDe revolutionibus orbium coelestium
to 1835Johannes KeplerAstronomia nova ;
Harmonices Mundi ;
Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae
SadeJustine ;
Juliette
Madame de StaëlCorinne, ou l'Italie
until 1959Victor HugoNotre Dame de Paris ;
Les Misérables