1717 CATHOLIC PRINTED BOOK: Index Librorum Prohibitorum usque ad totum mensem Martii MDCCXVII. Regnante Clemente XI - Typographia Camera Apostolica, Rome. 1717. pp. [xx], 531. 8vo. Contemporary...

1717 CATHOLIC PRINTED BOOK: Index Librorum Prohibitorum usque ad totum mensem Martii MDCCXVII. Regnante Clemente XI - Typographia Camera Apostolica, Rome. 1717. pp. [xx], 531. 8vo. Contemporary blind stamped pigskin over wooden boards with brass catches and clasps. An exceptionally fine copy of a rare edition of the Church Index of Prohibited Books. This was something sparked off by the Reformation and first issued in 1543 and was then first published in 1559. Thereafter the office of the Apostolic Camera periodically published updated catalogues of books deemed to be dangerous to faith and morals. This particular issue reprints the 1710 Decree of Clement XI prohibiting discussion of the Coeremoniarum Sinensium, or Chinese Rites. These concerned the elements of Confucianism that Fr Matteo Ricci S.J. had incorporated into the brand of Catholicism propagated in the Sino-Manchu Empire. Provenance: Monastery of St. Nicholas, Innsbruck with their dated inscription (1721) on the title page and final leaf. Provenance: The estate of Tony Sweeney

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