The American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA) and the American Historical Association (AHA) have awarded the 2021 Helen & Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian History to Hannah Marcus for Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science and Censorship in Early Modern Italy, published by the University of Chicago Press.
The Marraro Prize honors a book or article on Italian or Italo-American history or relations. The award carries a $1,500 purse.
The prize committee writes:
“In this broadly researched book on censorship of medical treatises, Marcus presents an unexpected discovery of how the censorship process, expurgating books and licensing readers, contributed to the professionalization of medical science and practice. Motivated by a dual understanding of “utility,” as a matter of good policy in this world, and of salvation of souls in the next, censors influenced and relied upon discussion among disciplinary experts, relativizing the influence of theologians.”