Damn books: The mysteries and legends of the prohibited texts throughout history – Digital Freedom

Óscar Herradón, author of Damn bookshas spoken in It is the weekend morning About the mysteries and legends that surround millions of books that were prohibited in his time for being considered demonic.

Knowledge today

Since ancient times, written support has always been feared: “It was A powerful weapon“Herradón said, since many books were prohibited because they threatened to dethrone kings, end political, social factions, etc. In addition, Herradón stressed that currently”Texts continue to be censored and chasing authors “, such as Roberto Saviano, writer of Gomorrathreatened by the Italian mafia.

In other cases, mythical libraries such as Alexandria or Bergamo have disappeared without knowing the clear causes behind the event: external attacks, it is not known who the author was (Arabs, Romans …), poor management, etc. Therefore, part of knowledge has been lost.
Likewise, “the bad performance of the rulers has also made texts and books of incalculable value be lost,” said Herradón, because although some leaders have defended knowledge, also also There were biblioclasts.

Black magic

Another genre of books were The grimoleswhose content was fought with the natural magic books, which had their splendor in the Renaissance, since they were texts with magic rituals linked to the cosmos and considered good. Unlike the grimoios, which were used by witches and sorcerers To invoke demonic spirits. In addition, many of these damn texts were afraid of the power they attributed to the sorcerer or because it was believed that he who read them could die.

One of the most famous grimoles is Solomon claviclesof which many falsifications have been made, and of which Herradón has commented that “although today we do not have that supposed book of King Solomon, it is believed that it could be the testament of King Solomon, where would have hidden the magical keys of the Kabbalah“

Literature and witches

Malleus Maleficarum It was the first treaty that began the witch hunt, and that was backed by the Pope himself of Rome. However, Herradón has argued that “sorcery was always pursued.” In the text, it was exposed that the witches were the enemy and, therefore, You had to chase and burn themwhich caused hundreds of thousands of victims. “It was not the Inquisition that persecuted the witches, but it was in the Protestant orbit where a much greater witch and sorceras hunt was made,” said Herradón.

The unknown or contrary has always caused rejection, so, according to Herradón, “any belief that considered that the book of another creed, of another sect, of another political faction … was a book that should not be distributed.” That is to say, he Koran It was a cursed book for a Christian of the Middle Ages and vice versa.

The cursed books have also existed in Spain, because, in the case of the reign of Carlos II, “the spell”, he was believed that was possessed by the evil And that’s why I couldn’t have children. However, the true reason is that they wanted to dethrone it for political interests; In fact, he was the last of the Austrias and Then the Bourbons arrived.

Alchemy

Herradón has said that they were “hermetic texts for a select group of people” and added that “alchemical practices were performed in El Escorial.” Felipe II had four bankruptcies During his reign, so he went to Charlatans to recover the money.
The king was interested in THE PLOMES OF THE SACROMONTEa book that is believed to be a falsification of the Moors (some of them translators of Felipe II), so the king commissioned Benito Arias Montano, his trusted man, to analyze the plúmbeos books of the Sacromonte to verify if they were true . “Today is still One of the largest bibliographic mysteries of the history of Spain, “said Herradón.

It should be noted that all these books were addressed to an audience understood in the matter, “so they used to hide a series of keys among their pages, even cryptographic“Herradón said. The interesting thing is that many centuries later, the mystery is still unresolved.