Presentazione

Voltaire was the author most censured by the Roman congregations of the Holy Office and/or the Index in the 18th century. This book offers a critical edition of the unpublished documents from the 32 proceedings brought against his texts between 1748 and 1804: a summary of the reasons for the condemnation precedes the censor’s report, and reference is made to the edition of Voltaire’s Complete Works (Oxford, Voltaire Foundation) for each passage in question. Exceptional for its massive and unpublished nature, the assembled corpus sheds new light on the pivotal moment that the years 1748-1752 represented in the perception of Voltaire and the French Enlightenment. It illustrates the jurisprudential manner, legally founded but historically out of step, in which Rome attempted to react to the growing jurisdictionalist demands of the Italian and European states, which were supported by the texts of Voltaire and the Enlightenment. Finally, it shows how the men of Rome were overwhelmed by the flow of Voltaire’s libels, and how they were dismayed by the implacable derision of his pen.