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An ''imprimatur'' (from Latin, "let it be printed") is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. ==Catholic Church== In the Catholic Church 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. 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"〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Code of Canon Law - IntraText )〕 In canon law such a person is known as a ''censor''〔 or sometimes as a ''censor librorum'' (Latin for "censor of books"). In this context, the word "censor" does not have the negative sense of prohibiting, but instead refers to the person's function of evaluating—whether positively or negatively—the doctrinal content of the publication.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Office of the Bishop (Diocese of St. Petersburg) at 6363 9th Avenue North, Saint Petersburg, FL 33710 US - Office of Censor Librorum )〕 The episcopal conference 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 person empowered to issue the imprimatur is the local ordinary 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 his reasons for doing so.〔 This enables the author, if he wishes, 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shows that a work is not free of doctrinal or moral error, the imprimatur granted for its publication can be withdrawn.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 judged that complaints made to it about religion textbooks for schools were well founded and ordered the bishop to revoke his approval.〔(''National Catholic Reporter'', 27 February 1998: Vatican orders bishop to remove imprimatur ),〕 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, catechisms and other catechetical texts, and 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. The imprimatur effectively dates from the dawn of printing, and is first seen in the printing and publishing centres of Germany and Venice;〔 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 block has reduced their number. In 2011, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades was the first bishop to grant an imprimatur to an iPhone application. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「imprimatur」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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