EAN: 9789401773454

THE INVENTION OF FREE PRESS - EDOARDO TORTAROLO...

Tracking the relationship between the theory of press control and the realities of practicing
daily press censorship prior to publication  this volume on the suppression of dissent in early
modern Europe tackles a topic with many elusive and under-researched characteristics.
Pre-publication censorship was common in absolutist regimes in Catholic and Protestant
countries alike  but how effective it was in practice remains open to debate. The Netherlands
and England  where critical content segued into outright lampoonery  were unusual for
hard-wired press freedoms that arose  respectively  from a highly competitive publishing
industry and highly decentralized political institutions. These nations remained extraordinary
exceptions to a rule that  for example in France  did not end until the revolution of 1789.
Here  the author¿s European perspective provides a survey of the varying censorship regulations
in European nations  as well as the shifting meanings of ¿freedom of the press¿. The analysis
opens up fascinating insights  afforded by careful reading of primary archival sources  into
the reactions of censors confronted with manuscripts by authors seeking permission to publish.
Tortarolo sets the opinions on censorship of well-known writers  including Voltaire and
Montesquieu  alongside the commentary of anonymous censors  allowing us to revisit some common
views of eighteenth-century history. How far did these writers  their reasoning stiffened by
Enlightenment values  promote dissident views of absolutist monarchies in Europe  and what
insights did governments gain from censors¿ reports into the social tensions brewing under
their rule? These questions will excite dedicated researchers  graduate students  and
discerning lay readers alike.

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