09-03-2023, 06:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-03-2023, 06:46 PM by Paul Ferguson.)
How the Inquisition censored an encyclopedia of natural history.
"Nothing is censored in passages about seemingly more disturbing anomalies and monsters, such as sirens, flying dragons, the monacus marinus (half-fish, half-monk), or the draconpedes (half human, half-snake). The image of a woman eating living toads is a case in point. Censorship overlooked it, as if this was compatible with religious orthodoxy. Maybe it was perceived as some kind of innocuous fantasy. By contrast, “Alchemy was one of the sept ars demonials [sic], for the aid of Satan was necessary to the transmutation of metals, and the Philosopher’s Stone”."
https://rarebooksdigest.com/2019/02/27/a.../#_ftnref1
(Available in various languages).
"Nothing is censored in passages about seemingly more disturbing anomalies and monsters, such as sirens, flying dragons, the monacus marinus (half-fish, half-monk), or the draconpedes (half human, half-snake). The image of a woman eating living toads is a case in point. Censorship overlooked it, as if this was compatible with religious orthodoxy. Maybe it was perceived as some kind of innocuous fantasy. By contrast, “Alchemy was one of the sept ars demonials [sic], for the aid of Satan was necessary to the transmutation of metals, and the Philosopher’s Stone”."
https://rarebooksdigest.com/2019/02/27/a.../#_ftnref1
(Available in various languages).