IMPRIMATUR. - "Let it be printed": this is the formula by which the local Ordinary or the competent dicastery of the Roman Curia grants permission to print a book, a leaflet or other writing subject to prior censorship under canon 1385, nos. 1-2, and any sacred image, if the ecclesiastical censor charged with the revision has given a favorable opinion.
The permission of the Ordinary, the opinion and, ordinarily, the name of the reviser must be printed at the beginning or at the end of the book (canons 1393 § 4 and 1394 § 1).
The imprimatur is not to be confused with the permission that clerics must obtain from the local Ordinary, and if they are religious also from their own major Superior, before giving any writing to the press or assuming the direction of newspapers, periodicals or reviews (canon 1386 § 1).
The first ecclesiastical law that imposed prior censorship and the consequent imprimatur was promulgated by Innocent VIII in 1487. For the history and the discipline currently in force on the matter, v. CENSURA; INDICE DEI LIBRI PROIBITI.
The Statuto Albertino (art. 28) established the obligation to submit Bibles, Catechisms and prayer books to the prior censorship of the bishop before giving them to the press: this provision, never observed, was not reproduced in the Constitution of the Italian Republic.
BIBL.:sources
A. Boudinhou, La nouvelle législation de l'Index, Paris 1890; F. M. Cappello, De Curia Romana, II, Rome 1911; E. J. L'«i.» et la permission d'éditer, in Rev. des comm. relig., 1 (1925), pp. 110-12; A. Grazioli, Censure e licenza nelle pubblicazioni dei sacerdoti, in Palestra del clero, 8 (1929), pp. 22-23 and 10 (1931), pp. 400-403; P. Matthaeus and Coronata, Institutiones iuris canonici, I, Turin 1931, nos. 953-58. Arturo De Jorio
De, Jorio Arturo. “Imprimatur.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, coll. 1729–1732. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/imprimatur.
MLA
De, Jorio Arturo. “Imprimatur.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 1729–1732. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/imprimatur.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec6_imprimatur,
author = {De, Jorio Arturo},
title = {Imprimatur},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VI},
pages = {1729--1732},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/imprimatur}
}
Click or scroll to zoom · drag to pan · Esc to close
