L'índex de llibres prohibits fou creat el 1559 per la Inquisició i va ser vigent fins el 1966
The monastery was a place of rules, but in the scriptorium there were rules within rules. Access was denied to all non-scribes. Absolute silence reigned. Scribes were not allowed to choose the particular books they copied or to break the dead silence by requesting aloud from the librarian such books as they might wish to consult in order to complete the task that han been assigned them. An elaborate gestural language was invented in order to facilitate such requests as were permitted. If a scribe wanted to consult a psalter, he made the general sign for a book -extending his hands and turning over imaginary pages- and then, by putting his hands on his head in the shape of a crown, the specific sign for the psalms of King David. If he was asking for a pagan book, he began, after making the general sign, to scratch behind his ear, like a dog scratching his fleas. And if he wished to have what the Church regarded as a particularly offensive or dangerous pagan book, he could put two fingers into his mouth, as if he were gagging.
Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve. How the Renaissance Began. Londres: The Bodley Head, 2011.
El monestir era un lloc de regles, però a l'scriptorium hi havia regles dins de les regles. L'accés estava prohibit a tot aquell que no fos copista. Hi regnava un silenci absolut. Als copistes no se'ls permetia escollir els llibres que copiaven o bé trencar el silenci absolut demanant en veu alta al bibliotecari els llilbres que desitjaven consultar per tal de completar la tasca que se'ls havia assignat. Els monjos van inventar un llenguatge gestual per tal de facilitar les requestes que se'ls permetia. Si un copista volia consultar un saltiri, feia el gest general per a un llibre -estenent les mans i donant voltes a les pàgines imaginàries- i després, posava les mans sobre el cap en forma d'una corona com a signe específic dels salms del rei David. Si demanava un llibre pagà, començava, després de fer el senyal general, a gratar-se darrere de l'orella, com un gos que es treu les puces. I si en desitjava un que l'Església considerava un llibre pagà particularment ofensiu o perilllós, es podia posar dos dits a la boca, com si tingués arcades.
