Unspoken Words: Writers and Censors in Counter-Reformation Rome.

SERIES: Open Doors. Rome Through the Centuries at the Center of the World
SPEAKER: Giorgio Caravale
DATE: Thursday, June 5, 6:00 PM

How many times have we held back from saying (or writing) something that might offend or irritate someone? We've done it out of respect, for the sake of diplomacy, sometimes out of convenience—or simply out of a certain instinct to conform. These everyday dynamics, so familiar in modern democracies, are all the more pronounced in times and places where free expression is restricted, such as under authoritarian regimes.

If we travel back in time to Counter-Reformation Rome, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, we find ourselves in an era when—especially on matters of religion—people were expected to adhere strictly to the dominant orthodoxy. A group of Roman cardinals oversaw a network of tools and mechanisms designed to prevent the spread of ideas deemed morally or theologically deviant. Writers, intellectuals, and even preachers—the very masters of spoken word—were forced to compromise between their personal beliefs and their artistic or intellectual ambitions.

Giorgio Caravale (born in Rome, 1973) is a Professor of Early Modern History at Roma Tre University, where he also coordinates the PhD programme in Political Science. He is a contributor to "Il Foglio". He currently serves as president of the SISEM (Italian Society for the History of the Early Modern Period) and is the author of several books, including, most recently: "Libri pericolosi. Censura e cultura italiana in età moderna" ("Dangerous Books: Censorship and Italian Culture in the Early Modern Age", Laterza, 2022); "Senza intellettuali. Politica e cultura in Italia negli ultimi trent’anni" ("Without Intellectuals: Politics and Culture in Italy over the Last Thirty Years", Laterza, 2023); and "A suon di polemiche. Eresia e controversia dottrinale nella crisi religiosa del Cinquecento" ("In a Storm of Polemics: Heresy and Doctrinal Controversy in the Religious Crisis of the Sixteenth Century", Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2024).

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