Index y Constitución. Heinecio o la impiedad del jurista

Overview & Synopsis

Index and Constitution are antagonistic signs. The Index, that of banned and expurgated books, and the Constitution, which inaugurates a culture of rights and freedoms, are not compatible in principle. The intersection between the two different paradigms represented by Index and Constitution is, however, the guiding thread of the writings gathered in this book. The first section, Index and jurisprudence, brings together three studies on different aspects of the culture of the Index: its usual historiographical interpretation is discussed in terms of ineffectiveness or non-compliance; its expansive vocation in jurisprudential knowledge, especially in the university environment; or the particularities of the "Portuguese way" in matters of expurgatory censorship, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the second section, three other studies deal with an author who crossed the era of the Index and that of the Constitution: Johannes Gottlieb Heineccius (1681-1741), a Protestant jurist who had a notable diffusion in Latin America until the end of the 19th century. The Catholic readings of his iusnaturalistic and philosophical compendia, between Roman prohibitions and Hispanic doctrinal scrutinies, between Latin reeditions and vernacular translations, offer examples of the persistent projection and revitalization of the Index's own keys in the new Catholic-constitutional order.