Physicians' Gallery Newsletter
Updates on upcoming events, exhibitions and online stories
Banned Books
These books were all banned or censored by the Catholic church in Rome. The first formal list of prohibited books was issued by the church in 1559. It contained almost 600 authors, 47 of which were physicians. This list did not only include books written by Protestant authors, but also any book which had been translated by a Protestant. Italian physicians campaigned against these bans and were able to find creative loopholes.
In some cases, they could be granted licences to keep banned books if the offensive content was censored. Licences were not for individuals or for universities – each book had to be assessed and licenced on a case-by-case basis. If a book was reassessed and found to be heretical in a new way, a new licence was required. If a physician wanted to move to a new town or city, they needed a new licence in order to be able to transport their library to their new home.
Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia; or, the Laws of Organic Life (1796)
Erasmus Darwin was a physician, a naturalist and the grandfather of Charles Darwin. In this book, Erasmus created a catalogue of animal descriptions, diseases and their treatments. By doing this, he drew the ire of the Catholic church.
Zoonomia was placed on the Vatican’s banned books list in 1817. When a book was banned, the exact reason for this was never explained. Darwin’s book does contain descriptions of sexual intercourse but, probably more alarming for the Catholic church of the time, it also suggested that the world was more than 6,000 years old and that animals had the ability to develop ‘improvements by generation’ – a version of what was to become his grandson’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Tommaso di Giunta, De Balneis (1553)
This book is a detailed study of medicinal bathing, with descriptions of over 200 European bathing sites. It also contains sections from texts of other writers. This book was written by an orthodox Catholic. It wasn’t censored because of who wrote it, or as a result of any heretical ideas it contained. Instead, it was censored because some of the quoted works in it were written by Protestants.
The Catholic church had categories of heresy. Books which outright questioned religious principles were completely banned, and often burned. Those books which were not heretical in their content, but were written by non-Catholics could be kept, as long as they were expurgated. Here the two Protestant naturalists mentioned, Conrad Gesner and Leonhart Fuchs, are obliterated from the text – papered over or scribbled out.
Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (1642)
This book is an exploration of what it meant to be both a physician and a Christian. Its author, Thomas Browne, was a well-travelled English physician who had studied medicine in France, Italy and the Netherlands. Browne initially wrote this book for his own ‘private exercise and satisfaction’. When one bookseller got his hands on it, he published it without Browne’s knowledge. A year later Browne’s first authorised version appeared. The following year it was placed on the Vatican’s forbidden books list.
Religio Medici is not anti-religion, but in this book Browne did explore the importance of being tolerant of those of different faith and warned against religious leaders who preached intolerance. Browne also argued that science and religion had separate remits – that religious beliefs should not interfere with scientific principles.
Galileo Galilei, Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche (1638)
Galileo wrote this book while under house arrest. The last book he wrote before his death, it explores and expands on the work he carried out over his career. Galileo was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer. He was also, according to the Catholic church, a heretic.
Galileo hypothesised that it was the Sun, not the Earth, which was at the centre of the universe. His writings were submitted to the Roman Inquisition who declared that Galileo’s opinions contradicted Biblical teachings. Galileo was formally tried, found guilty, and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. Future publication of any of his works was forbidden. After searching in France, Germany and Poland, Galileo finally found a publisher in the Netherlands who was willing to publish this book.
Leonhart Fuchs, De Historia Stirpium (1551)
This herbal describes almost 500 medicinal plants. Many botanical books written at this time were very derivative – heavily plagiarising earlier texts. This book is filled with original drawings, created from observations made by examining living plants, rather than copied from older illustrations.
The contents of the book were not controversial or heretical. There was no mention of religion, evolution, or of the Sun being at the centre of the solar system. Its author, Fuchs, was a German physician and botanist. He was also a Protestant. This alone was enough for Fuchs to be included in the papacy’s Index of Prohibited Books. Catholic officials soon realised how important Fuchs’ book was. A compromise was made – Catholic doctors could apply for church exemption to own a copy of Fuchs’ book, but only if Fuchs name was erased.
