Hidden and secret libraries
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("List of Prohibited Books") of the Catholic Church.
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This page is on hidden and/or secret libraries, analogous to secret museums.
Many European libraries possess a collection of erotic and pornographic literature and prints. Since the 19th century and during the best part of the 20th century, these collections were kept in a private room, away from the general public. In France this collection was called L'Enfer (Eng: hell, founded in 1836) and in Great Britain it was called The Private Case.
Private cases share many qualities with secret museums.
In German, these collections are called Giftschrank or Remota.
Many of these works came from private collections as inheritances. One could ask why the respective governments decided to keep the forbidden books instead of burning them. A partial explanation is already given in 1794 when abbé Grégoire writes that it is necessary to catalogue the books that are in the enfer because of their role in social history:
- « Les œuvres érotiques servent à l’histoire de l’humanité, des mœurs, des coutumes et des arts. C’est sur les productions de cette espèce que l’observateur éclairé juge souvent le siècle qui les a vus naître».
In English:
- "Erotic literature serve in the history of humanity, manners, customs and arts. It is by productions of this nature that insightful observers often consider the century that saw their birth."
History
In the French cabinet de lecture (reading rooms) one could find "armoires de fer" (literally: iron cases), containing the forbidden books.
- L’attention du gouvernement se portait également sur la librairie des romans, qui avait grand besoin d’être épurée. La plupart des cabinets de lecture avaient, pour ainsi dire, une armoire de fer, ouverte à tout venant, et qui contenait les romans égrillards de Dulaurens, Pigault-Lebrun, Victor Ducange, Raban, Cuisin. La plupart des ouvrages de ces auteurs étaient mis à l’index. À l’index aussi : le Tableau de l’amour conjugal, les Amours du chevalier de Faublas, Thémidore, Amélie de Saint-Phar, Felicia ou mes fredaines, Julie ou j’ai sauvé ma rose, le Parc aux Cerfs, les Contes de Voisenon, les Liaisons dangereuses, l'Heptaméron, etc. Étaient également interdits : tous les livres philosophiques de La Mettrie, de Fréret, de Boulanger, du baron D’Holbach, de Dupuis, de Volney, du curé Meslier, certains ouvrages de Rousseau, Diderot, Voltaire et Montesquieu. --from the French Cabinet de lecture article
Bibliography
- The Private Case: An annotated bibliography of the Private Case Erotica Collection in the British (Museum) Library (1981) - Patrick J Kearney, see British Library
See also
