The Tridentine Ruling on the Vulgate and Ecclesiastical Censorship in the 1580s

Abstract

Four works by the historian Carlo Sigonio (1523-1584) were made the target of censures by ecclesiastical authorities in the early 1580s. His works were never put on the index of prohibited books, but the censures reveal the mentality and concerns of the censors more clearly than any other surviving documentation from this period. This article examines the censures directed against Sigonio's historical investigation of Old Testament history. By using sources such as the Greek text of the Old Testament, Philo, and Josephus, Sigonio committed the error of Judaizing.