The Reformation is often alluded to as Gutenberg's child. Could it then be said that the Counter-Reformation was his step-child? The close relationship between the Reformation, the printing press and books has received extensive, historiographical attention, which is clearly justified; however, the links between books and the Catholic world have often been limited to a tale of censorship and repression. The current volume looks beyond this, with a series of papers that aim to shed new light on the complex relationships between Catholicism and books during the early modern period, before and after the religious schism, with special focus on trade, common reads and the mechanisms used to control readership in different territories, together with the similarities between the Catholic and the Protestant worlds.

Contributors include: Stijn Van Rossem, Rafael M. Pérez García, Pedro J. Rueda Ramírez, Idalia García Aguilar, Bianca Lindorfer, Natalia Maillard Álvarez, and Adrien Delmas.