Bidspirit auction | Imporesso

Imporesso - DOM JOSÉ MARIA DE MELLO, titular bishop of the Algarve, Inquisitor-General. Edict excommunicating all those who acquire, sell, read or possess heretical books. Lisbon, At the Régia Officina Typografica , [1791]. Large folio broadside (c. 535 × 435 mm); text printed in two columns on the recto only, with a prominent typographical heading in capitals (“Dom Jose Maria de Mello, Bispo titular do Algarve, Inquisidor Geral nestes Reinos…”) and a decorative woodcut initial; blank verso. Laid paper, wide margins, small trace of old sealing-wax or stain in the lower outer corner, some light handling and old folds, no loss of text. Edict issued by the Inquisitor-General Dom José Maria de Mello, titular bishop of the Algarve (1737–1818), acting in the name of the Portuguese Holy Office, in which he very strictly renews the ban on acquiring, selling, reading or keeping heretical or “suspect in faith” books, under pain of excommunication. The text restates the Inquisition’s authority over censorship and control of the printed word, insisting that no book may circulate without licence and stamp from the ecclesiastical authorities; it warns against private reading of forbidden works, their clandestine circulation and sale by second-hand dealers, booksellers and in private libraries, and orders confessors to question penitents about the possession of such books. The edict further commands that it be read in churches and posted in public places, as part of the late-eighteenth-century policy of ideological vigilance over the spread of Enlightenment ideas.