The “Bibbia volgare” in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Venice: Censorship, Diffusion, and Readers

Abstract

This article explores how daily access to Biblical texts in the vernacular was configured in Venice following the promulgation of the Clementine Index in 1596. While previous research on the faithful’s relationship to Holy Scripture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has largely focused on texts and their authors, this study prioritizes the perspectives of readers and ecclesiastical censors. A combined analysis of censorship mechanisms and editorial production, which highlights the ambivalent legal status of vernacular Biblical materials, together with an examination of the circulation and reading of these texts, as revealed through Venetian inquisitorial trials, contributes to rethinking the long-term effects of Roman censorship on the everyday consumption of Scripture in the vernacular in post-Tridentine Italy.