on this day: june 14th

59 years ago - 1966, Pope Paul VI Officially Abolishes The Index Librorum Prohibitorum

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or The Index of Prohibited Books, was implemented in 1559 by Pope Paul IV.

Differing versions of The Index also included rules of the Church relating to the reading, selling and preemptive censorship of books.

In 1948, the 20th and final edition still included works by Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Voltaire, Simone de Beauvoir, Denis Diderot, Immanuel Kant, Baruch Spinoza and Jean-Paul Sartre to name a few.