Poetry and Censorship in Counter-Reformation Italy

Originating from Helm’s doctoral thesis at the University of Gottingen, this book aims to draw attention to and elucidate potential links between poetry and censorship. The Catholic Church sought to save Catholic souls from the insidious contents of books, including poetry books. Counter-Reformation censorship not only suppressed and manipulated books, it also influenced the creativity, fantasy, creative freedom and language of authors. This volume asks three essential questions: What were the criteria for Counter-Reformation censorship? How did censors read, understand and interpret profane vernacular poetry, for instance, its complex semantic structures and fictionality? What were the implications of the assessments for the creative process and poetic theory? Helm subdivides the book into three main thematic fields from the censorship files that are typical of vernacular poetry: the ‘marvelous,’ love, and laughter. Seven chapters and conclusion are: control of literature as a strategy of Catholic Reformation: motives and modes of influence; approaching censorial reading; mechanisms of the Roman Index; censures of the marvelous; censures of love; censoring laughter; self-censorship and poetic counter-strategies: the case of Domenico Venier; conclusion. Annotation c2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Jennifer Helm, Ph.D. (2010), Gottingen University, Germany, is lecturer in Romance Literary Studies at the same university. She has published articles on Catholic censorship of literary works.