The Inquisitor in the Hat Shop: Inquisition, Forbidden Books and Unbelief in Early Modern Venice

Drawing on a vast store of primary sources - particularly those of the Inquisition - this book recreates the social fabric of Venice between 1640 and 1740. It brings to life a wealth of minor figures who inhabited the city and fostered ideas of dissent, unbelief and atheism in the teeth of the Counter Reformation. It will be of interest not only to scholars of Venice, but all those with an interest in the intellectual, cultural and religious history of early-modern Europe.