15th Century banned book...

For this component of Research Skills, l have decided to do my six posts on banned books going back to the 15th Century as society has always wrestled with censorship.
Books have been burned, removed from public sale, and taken off the shelves of libraries and classrooms. In some instances, the author or printer of the work has been either outlawed or condemned to death.
Where are they now and is the book available? How did they affect the community? Why was the book banned?
My research process will mainly be via the Internet and l will try to speak to people in book stores, mainly second hand bookstores in order to see if they have come across any banned books and what the history of the book is.

For my first post, whilst searching on the Internet, l came across Dante's classic Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) which l didn't even know was banned. This interested me immensely as l only recently bought all three books in the series, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. It was actually first printed in 1472 and was not banned in Italy which was where Dante was born (around 1265). It was however deemed offensive in Portugal and Spain. In 1581, the Portuguese authorities called in all copies for expurgation while the Spanish Index of 1612 eliminated three passages from the poem.
Even today, literally on the 9th April 2012, there was a article in The Telegraph, about Dante's books being removed from school curricula. It has been deemed "offensive and discriminatory" by Gherush 92, a human rights organisation, so even today, it seems Dante's books are still making an impact in some communities.



Squires, N 2012, Dante's Divine Comedy 'offensive and should be banned', Telegraph Media Group, viewed 9th April 2012.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9140869/Dantes-Divine-Comedy-offensive-and-should-be-banned.html

Cabinet 7: The Italians 2010, Special Collections, University of Otago Library, viewed 9th April 2012.
http://library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/bannedbooks/index.php