17th April 2015
An early copy of a book ordered destroyed by the pope in 1679 has been donated to an Oxfam bookshop in Shrewsbury! Clearly not all of the copies of Varia Opuscula Theologica ('Various Theological Brochures'), first published in 1599, were burned – this copy dates from before 1679 and even has a stamp indicating it belonged to a library in Rome. The author, Francisco Suarez, was a Spanish Jesuit and one of his time's most distinguished theologians. I strongly believe in the value of books, and wrote particularly about the dangers of religious censorship in The Queen's Fool. If this copy was still in Rome in 1679 I admire whoever took the decision to preserve it.
My thanks to Annie Tompkins who shared this.