French censorship in L'Ancien Régime
Undermining Good Order
Censorship of books was a matter of course in France since the advent of printing. Religious books had to be read and approved by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris by order of Frances I in 1521.1
Royal censorship was centralized when Louis XIV was informed of the misuse of printing presses in France which were printing all sorts of books that undermined good order.2 The bureaux de la librairie and the committee of expert censors was formed in 1699 to police subject matter of books.3
Penalties included burning books, suspending printers, smashing printing presses, the pillory, fines and even death.
Many printers evaded these rules by finding friendly censors or even inserting material in the book after it had been given the censor’s approval.
Royal censorship ended with the French Revolution of 1789. The “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” on August 26, 1789 declared that the government sanctioned the freedom of the press as a natural and inalienable right.4
Darnton and Roche have explored the role of a free press during the revolution.5
Pottinger, David T. (1958). The French Book Trade in the Ancien Regime, 1500 - 1791. Harvard University Press.
McLeod, Jane. (2011). Licensing Loyalty: Printers, Patrons, and the State in Early Modern France. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
L’Ancien Régime (1970). The Book Collector 19 no 3 (autumn) 303-316. Review of: Martin, Henri Jean. 1999. Livre, pouvoirs et société à Paris au 17. siècle. 1 1. Livre, Pouvoirs Et Société À Paris Au 17. Siècle : 1598-1701 / Henri-Jean Martin ; Préface De Roger Chartier. Genève: Librairie Droz.
Hesse, Carla. (1991). Publishing and Cultural Politics in Revolutionary Paris, 1789-1810. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Article 11 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, promulgated August 26, 1789; an edited version appears in Godechot (ed.), Les Constitutions de la France, 34.)
Darnton, Robert., and Daniel. Roche (1989). Revolution in Print : the Press in France, 1775-1800. Berkeley: University of California Press in collaboration with the New York Public Library, 1989.
THE GREAT RESET AGENDA -- COVID 19 & CLIMATE CHANGE
Those who believed that social media censorship would begin and end with vaccine “misinformation” have just been proven hilariously wrong.
Many of us suspected that the end goal would be a total policing of our speech. This includes access to any information that would cut against the mainstream narrative on a given topic. It just depends on the liberal order of the day.
With the pandemic in its final stages, we’re not surprised to see Big Tech censors move on to the left’s favorite boogeyman – climate change.
When social media giants announced they censoring anti-vaxxers on their platforms, it was obvious that this was just the first move in a protracted effort to limit the spread of information that doesn’t fit in with liberal talking points.
Now, “climate misinformation” is next to take a hit, as Google has now announced that it would not allow advertisements that insinuate climate change is a hoax, deny “long-term trends” showing global climate is warming, and deny that human activity is the culprit.
It’s unclear what would constitute “climate misinformation” in the eyes of Google. However, if the past is anything to go by, it’s likely that the internet giant will err on the site of “caution.” It will likely pull advertisements that even dare to hint that the current consensus on climate change might not be entirely 100% correct.
Here’s the full story.
https://www.rightamericanfuturenews.com/articles/social-media-outlets-set-to-censor-climate-misinformation/
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Of course with their "Glorious Revolution", France jumped from the frying pan right into the fire....
Thanks for another fascinating glimpse into history Kathleen.
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