Prooemium

Division into four Parts

1. In order that, which is our purpose, we may place the present law concerning the prohibition and censorship of books in a clearer view, we divide this our study into four principal Parts.

The first will contain various notions which either, as it were, surround the law, concerning its end, usefulness, and history, or are of more general use and give common aids for its right interpretation.

In the second, we shall illustrate the several articles of the Constitution, in the order in which they are proposed, by brief notes.

In the third, there will be made a brief repetition of the General Decrees, arranged, as they say, in a "logical" order.

The fourth will give certain useful forms and lists.

Finally, at the end of the work, before the Indexes, we shall bring forward the Constitutions of Leo XIII and Benedict XIV, from which the present law concerning the prohibition and censorship of books is composed.