Description:
This book is the first comprehensive treatment in English of the ideology and practice of the Inquisitional censors, focusing on the case of Mexico from the 1520s to the 1630s. Others have examined the effects of censorship, but Martin Nesvig employs a
Review Quotes: "We like to think of the Spanish Inquisition as a well-oiled institution, efficiently stamping out dissent. In a marvelously crafted study, Martin Nesvig shows the many fault lines in such an account. The shibboleths of the past give way to a nuanced narrative, painstakingly based on archival research. Nesvig demonstrates that in Mexico, the Inquisition was a rather inefficient repressive apparatus, constantly changing and constitutionally riddled by competing ideological agendas. Nesvig sheds abundant new light on the workings of (canon) law in the early modern Spanish Empire. The flexibility with which censure and the law were applied could well explain the longevity of the empire."--Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, University of Texas at Austin--Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra