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.
