Word: indexes
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...duplicate catalogue cards that had come from the U.S. "It is," said one Vatican scholar, "just as if an encyclopedia had never existed before, and the first encyclopedia had just been issued." The gift the cardinal was presenting: a complete copy of Princeton's massive Index of Christian...
...original index, still at Princeton, was begun back in 1917, when Charles Rufus Morey, assistant professor of art and archaeology, started searching for a way to make a permanent record of Christian art. This seemed a hopelessly ambitious scheme, for it meant listing every published example of early Christian art, describing it, compiling opinions on its date and meaning, and finally cataloguing it with a photograph. Scholars felt the need for such an index, but, says Professor Morey, "only we were fools enough to get on with...
...kindly, dedicated man, Morey at first limited himself to the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Later, he decided to include works of art up to 1200, finally raised his sights to 1400. The index not only had to cover every illustration-sculpture, frescoes, paintings, coins, medals, tapestries-inspired by the Bible, but also those based on the lives of the saints, the writings of the church fathers, and the history of the church...
...spite of its 500,000 cards, the index is still not complete. In one day, a staff member may have to catalogue an 6th century statue, a 6th century painting, a 9th century illuminated manuscript, a 4th century funeral slab. He may have to catalogue each work in several different ways-by character, by scene (e.g., Christ teaching), by object (e.g., Solomon's Temple). Finally, he has to enter his information on one of 16 different types of cards-grey for textiles, brown for leather, white for sculpture...
Nowadays the Vatican rarely bans the work of specific authors. It is left to local bishops or Roman Catholic readers themselves to decide what books fall into forbidden categories. Last week, nonetheless, the Vatican proscribed the work of two widely read modern authors, and added their books to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (TIME, April 28). The authors...