Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T02:51:54.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inquisitions and Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2015

R. Warren Anderson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Inquisitors engaged in mass censorship across the Iberian and Italian peninsulas; however, the effect it had on scholarship is debated. To test the effect of inquisitorial control a database of more than 2,000 top-tier mathematicians, scientists, authors, artists, and composers was created for 16 European countries from 1000 to 1749. Italy and Iberia had large declines of high-level scholars shortly after the establishment of the inquisitions. In contrast, other countries—both Protestant and Catholic—had increases in top-level scholars. Even though other countries had book burnings, religious persecution, and intolerance, the presence of an institution that became intolerant and oppressive significantly impacted the location of scientists and other top achievers throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 677 - 702
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A. (2012) Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. New York: Crown Publishers.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Hassan, Tarek, and Robinson, James (2011) “The missing middle class: Economic and political consequences of the Holocaust in Russia.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (2): 895–946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A. (2002) The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude, and Yuksel, Mutlu (forthcoming) “The long-term direct and external effects of Jewish Expulsions in Nazi Germany.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.Google Scholar
Alcalá, Angel (1987a) “Inquisitorial control of humanists and writers,” in Alcalá, Angel (ed.) The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs: 321–60.Google Scholar
Alcalá, Angel (1987b) The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs.Google Scholar
Alfani, Guido (2010) “Climate, population and famine in northern Italy: General tendencies and Malthusian crisis, ca. 1450–1800.” Annales de Demographie Historique 120 (2): 23–53.Google Scholar
Alfani, Guido (2013a) Calamities and the Economy in Renaissance Italy: The Grand Tour of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, trans. Christine Calvert. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Alfani, Guido (2013b) “Plague in seventeenth-century Europe and the decline of Italy: An epidemiological hypothesis.” European Review of Economic History 17 (4): 408–30.Google Scholar
Amiel, Charles (1986) “The archives of the Portuguese Inquisition: A brief survey,” in Henningsen, G. and Tedeschi, J. (eds.) The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe: Studies on Sources and Methods. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press: 79–99.Google Scholar
Anderson, R. Warren (2013) “Portuguese inquisitorial sentencing trends.” Homo Oeconomicus 30 (1): 37–59.Google Scholar
Baten, Joerg, and van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2008) “Book production and the onset of modern economic growth.” Journal of Economic Growth 13 (3): 217–35.Google Scholar
Bethencourt, Francisco (2009) The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834, trans. Birrell, Jean. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Black, Christopher F. (2009) The Italian Inquisition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Blaydes, Lisa, and Chaney, Eric (2013) “The feudal revolution and Europe's rise: Political divergence of the Christian west and the Muslim world before 1500 CE.” American Political Science Review 107 (1): 16–34.Google Scholar
Bleichmar, Daniela, de Vos, Paula, Huffine, Kristin, and Sheehan, Kevin, eds. (2009) Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500–1800. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Borowiecki, Karol Jan, and O'Hagan, John (2010) “Birth location, migration, and clustering of important composers.” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 43 (2): 81–90.Google Scholar
Borowiecki, Karol Jan, and O'Hagan, John (2013) “Impact of war on individual life-cycle creativity: Tentative evidence in relation to composers.” Journal of Cultural Economics 37 (3): 347–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosmajian, Haig A. (2006) Burning Books. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.Google Scholar
Cantoni, Davide, and Yuchtman, Noam (2012) “Medieval universities, legal institutions, and the commercial revolution.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, Working Paper 17979.Google Scholar
Chabás, José, and Goldstein, Bernard R. (2000) Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula: Abraham Zacut and the Transition from Manuscript to Print. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Chaney, Eric (2008) “Tolerance, religious competition and the rise and fall of Muslim science.” Working paper, http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/chaney/files/muslimscience.pdf?m=1360041451.Google Scholar
Clair, Colin (1976) A History of European Printing. London and New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Gregory (2005) “The condition of the working class in England, 1209–2004.” Journal of Political Economy 113 (6): 1307–40.Google Scholar
Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2008). 27 vols. Detroit: Scribners.Google Scholar
Contreras, Jaime (1987) “The social infrastructure of the Inquisition: Familiars and commissioners,” in Alcalá, Angel (ed.) The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs: 133–58.Google Scholar
Cook, Noble David, and Parma Cook, Alexandra (2009) “Afterward,” in Bleichamar, D. et al. (eds.) Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500–1800. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press: 311–21.Google Scholar
Coşgel, Metin M., Miceli, Thomas, and Rubin, Jared (2012) “The political economy of mass printing: Legitimacy, revolt, and technology change in the Ottoman Empire.” Journal of Comparative Economics 40 (3): 357–71.Google Scholar
Defourneaux, Marcelin (1963) L'inquisition Espagnole et Les Livres Français Au XVIIIe Siècle. Paris: Presses univ. de France.Google Scholar
De la Croix, David, and Licandro, Omar (2015) “The longevity of famous people from Hammurabi to Einstein.” Journal of Economic Growth 20 (3): 263–303.Google Scholar
De Rüegg, Walter, and Ridder-Symoens, H., eds. (1996) A History of the University in Europe. Vol. II, Universities in Early Modern Europe (1500–1800). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dittmar, Jeremiah (2011) “Information technology and economic change: The impact of the printing press.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (3): 1133–72.Google Scholar
Drelichman, Mauricio (2005a) “All that glitters: Precious metals, rent seeking and the decline of Spain.” European Review of Economic History 9 (3): 313–36.Google Scholar
Drelichman, Mauricio (2005b) “The curse of Moctezuma: American silver and the Dutch disease.” Explorations in Economic History 42 (3): 349–80.Google Scholar
Febvre, Lucien, and Martin, Henri-Jean (1976) The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450–1800. London: NLB.Google Scholar
Galor, Oded (2011) Unified Growth Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, Carlo (1980) The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Gorham, Charles T. (1918) The Medieval Inquisition: A Study in Religious Persecution. London: Watts and Co.Google Scholar
Grendler, Paul F. (1977) The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press, 1540–1605. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Im, Kyung So, Hashem Pesaran, M., and Yongcheol, Shin (2003) “Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels.” Journal of Econometrics 115 (1): 53–74.Google Scholar
Israel, Jonathan (1995) The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kamen, Henry (1998) The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Kohn, George C. (1986) Dictionary of Wars. New York: Facts on File.Google Scholar
Koyama, Mark, and Xue, Melanie (2015) “The Literary Inquisition: The Persecution of Intellectuals and Human Capital Accumulation in Imperial China.” Working paper.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter H., and Williamson, Jeffrey G. (2013) “American incomes before and after the Revolution.” The Journal of Economic History 73 (3): 725–65.Google Scholar
Maddala, G. S., and Wu, Shaowen (1999) “A comparative study of unit root tests with panel data and a new simple test.” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 61 (S1): 631–52.Google Scholar
Márquez, Antonio (1980) Literatura e Inquisicion en España: 1478–1834. Madrid: Taurus.Google Scholar
Maycock, A. L. (1931) The Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism: An Introductory Study. London: Constable.Google Scholar
McEvedy, Colin, and Jones, Richard (1978) Atlas of World History. Harmondsworth, UK, and New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Menchi, Silvana Seidel (1987) Erasmo in Italia, 1520–1580. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Mokyr, Joel (2002) “The enduring riddle of the European miracle: The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.” Paper presented at the University of California Conference on Economic Convergence and Divergence in Historical Perspective, Irvine, November 8–10.Google Scholar
Mokyr, Joel (2005) “The intellectual origins of modern economic growth.” Journal of Economic History 65 (2): 285–351.Google Scholar
Mokyr, Joel (2009) The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain, 1700–1850. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, Charles A. (2003) Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Phillips, Carla Rahn (1987) “Time and duration: A model for the economy of Early Modern Spain.” The American Historical Review 92 (3): 531–62.Google Scholar
Pinto, Virgilio (1987) “Censorship: A system of control and an instrument of action,” in Alcalá, Angel (ed.) The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind. Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs: 303–20.Google Scholar
Polastron, Lucien X. (2007) Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.Google Scholar
Rashdall, Hastings (1895) The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rotondò, Antonio (1973) La Censura Ecclesiastica e la Cultura. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Rubin, Jared (2014) “Printing and Protestants: Reforming the economics of the reformation.” Review of Economics and Statistics 96 (2): 270–86.Google Scholar
Simonton, Dean Keith (1997) Genius and Creativity: Selected Papers. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp.Google Scholar
Tomás, José Pardo (1991) Ciencia y Censura: La Inquisición Española y los Libros Científicos en los Siglos XVI Y XVII. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.Google Scholar
Turberville, Arthur Stanley (1964) Mediaeval Heresy and the Inquisition. London and Hamden: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Vidal-Robert, Jordi (2014) “Long-run effects of the Spanish Inquisition.” University of Warwick Working Paper, Series No. 192.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Fabian (2010) “Quality matters: The expulsion of professors and the consequences for PhD student outcomes in Nazi Germany.” The Journal of Political Economy 118 (4): 787–831.Google Scholar
Waldinger, Fabian (2013) “Bombs, brains, and science.” Working paper, http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/assets/pdf/Fabian%20Waldinger%20Bombs%20Brains%20and%20Science.pdf.Google Scholar
Weintraub, E. Roy (2014) “MIT's openness to Jewish economists.” History of Political Economy 46 (S1): 45–59.Google Scholar