An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the Roman Catholic Church effectively dates from the dawn of printing, and is first seen in the printing and publishing centres of Germany and

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

; many secular states or cities began to require registration or approval of published works around the same time, and in some countries such restrictions still continue, though the collapse of the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that exist ...

has reduced their number.

Catholic Church

In the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

an imprimatur is an official declaration by a Church authority that a book or other printed work may be published; it is usually only applied for and granted to books on religious topics from a Catholic perspective. Approval is given in accordance with canons 822 to 832 of the Code of Canon Law, which do not require the use of the word "imprimatur". The grant of imprimatur is normally preceded by a favourable declaration (known as a '' nihil obstat'') by a person who has the knowledge, orthodoxy, and prudence necessary for passing a judgement about the absence from the publication of anything that would "harm correct faith or good morals." In canon law such a person is known as a ''censor'' or sometimes as a ''censor librorum'' (

for "censor of books"). The

episcopal conference An episcopal conference, sometimes called a conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The first assembly of bishops to ...

may draw up a list of persons who can suitably act as censors or can set up a commission that can be consulted, but each ordinary may make his own choice of person to act as censor. An imprimatur is not an endorsement by the bishop of the contents of a book, not even of the religious opinions expressed in it, being merely a declaration about what is ''not'' in the book. In the published work, the imprimatur is sometimes accompanied by a declaration of the following tenor:

The nihil obstat and imprimatur are declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the nihil obstat or imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.

The person empowered to issue the imprimatur is the

local ordinary An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws. Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have a ...

of the author or of the place of publication. If he refuses to grant an imprimatur for a work that has received a favourable nihil obstat from the censor, he must inform the author of the reasons for doing so. This gives the author the opportunity to make changes so as to overcome the ordinary's difficulty in granting approval. If further examination shows that a work is not free of doctrinal or moral error, the imprimatur granted for its publication can be withdrawn. This happened three times in the 1980s, when the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

judged that complaints made to it about religion textbooks for schools were well founded and ordered the bishop to revoke his approval. The imprimatur granted for a publication is not valid for later editions of the same work or for translations into another language. For these, new imprimaturs are required. The permission of the local ordinary is required for the publication of prayer books,

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adul ...

s, and other catechetical texts and for school textbooks on Scripture, theology, canon law, church history, or religious or moral subjects. It is recommended, but without obligation, that books on the last-mentioned subjects not intended to be used as school textbooks and all books dealing especially with religious or moral subjects be submitted to the local ordinary for judgement. A Catholic Imprimatur is often accompanied by a Maltese Cross ✠ before the name of the Bishop. In 2011, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades was the first bishop to grant an imprimatur to an iPhone application.

English law

English laws of 1586, 1637, and 1662 required an official licence for printing books. The 1662 act required books, according to their subject, to receive the authorization, known as the imprimatur, of the Lord Chancellor, the Earl Marshall, a principal Secretary of State, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Bishop of London. This law finally expired in 1695.

Other senses

In commercial printing the term is used, in line with the meaning of the Latin word, for final approval by a customer or his agent, perhaps after review of a test printing, for carrying out the printing job. As a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

, the word "imprimatur" is used loosely of any form of approval or endorsement, especially by an official body or a person of importance, as in the newspaper headline, "Protection of sources now has courts' imprimatur", but also much more vaguely, and probably incorrectly, as in "Children, the final imprimatur to family life, are being borrowed, adopted, created by artificial insemination."

Judaism

Haskama (approval, הַסְכָּמָה) is a rabbinic approval of a religious book concerning Judaism. It is written by a prominent rabbi in his own name, not in the name of a religious organization or hierarchy. It is often in the form of a letter, possibly on stationery, and generally includes not only "approbation, recommendation, or endorsement" of the work, but also a blessing for the success of the author in this and other accomplishments. As a result, at times a Haskama given to the author is printed, verbatim, in later works from the same authorThe first Haskama in Volume I of , a 4 volume set, says "(originally written for ... and included here with permission from ...)." The last is a 2-page "Blessings from the Author's Father." An additional value for haskama letters, long ago, was to serve as a form of copyright, to protect the author or the printer from any unauthorized reproduction.

Similar terms

* Digital imprimatur is a hypothetical system of

Internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...

. *''Imprimatur'' is also the name of a 2002 thriller novel by Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti, with the

castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due t ...

singer Atto Melani as a central character. *In

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...

, the distinct term "

imprimatura In painting, imprimatura is an initial stain of color painted on a ground. It provides a painter with a transparent, toned ground, which will allow light falling onto the painting to reflect through the paint layers. The term itself stems from the ...

" is use of an underlying coat of paint. *In the

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

'' Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures'' book series, the Rassilonian Imprimatur is the equivalent of a university degree, given to Time Lords upon the conclusion of their education.

References