This document provides a detailed list of notable book burnings that have occurred throughout history, organized chronologically. It describes over 200 incidents of books being intentionally destroyed by burning, ranging from antiquity to the present day. The burnings involved a wide variety of literature from different cultures and eras, and were carried out for various religious, political and ideological reasons by authorities including emperors, kings, religious leaders, and occupying forces.

1. Professor Seth C. Oranburg

6. A Short List of Notable Book Burnings in History
1 Antiquity
1.1 Destruction of Ebla
1.2 Destruction of Mari
1.3 Destruction of Alalakh
1.4 Destruction of Ugarit
1.5 Library of Ashurbanipal (by Babylonians, Scythian's and Medes)
1.6 A scroll written by the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (burnt by King Jehoiakim)
1.7 Protagoras's "On the Gods" (by Athenian authorities)
1.8 Democritus' writings (by Plato)
1.9 Zoroastrian scriptures and Persian Royal Archives (by Alexander the Great)
1.10 Chinese philosophy books (by Emperor Qin Shi Huang and anti-Qin rebels)
1.11 Books of Pretended Prophecies (by Roman authorities)
1.12 Jewish holy books (by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV)
1.13 Aeneid (unsuccessfully ordered by Virgil)
1.14 Roman history book (by the aediles)
1.15 Greek and Latin prophetic verse (by the Emperor Augustus)
1.16 Torah scroll (by Roman soldier)
1.17 Sorcery scrolls (by early converts to Christianity at Ephesus)
1.18 Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion burned with a Torah scroll (under Hadrian)
1.19 Burning of the Torah by Apostomus (precise time and circumstances debated)
1.20 Epicurus's book (in Paphlagonia)
1.21 Manichaean and Christian scriptures (by Diocletian)
1.22 Pagan religious writings and works of philosophy and science (by resurgent
Christians)
1.23 Books of Arianism (after Council of Nicaea)
1.24 Library of Antioch (by Jovian)
1.25 "Unacceptable writings" (by Athanasius)
1.26 The Sibylline books (various times)
1.27 Writings of Priscillian
1.28 Etrusca Disciplina
1.29 Nestorius' books (by Theodosius II)
2 Middle Ages
2.1 "Book of the Miracles of Creation" (reportedly destroyed by Saint Brendan)
2.2 Patriarch Eutychius' book (by Emperor Tiberius II Constantine)
2.3 Japanese books and manuscripts (during power struggle at the Imperial court)
2.4 Repeated destruction of Alexandria libraries
2.5 Iconoclast writings (by Byzantine authorities)
2.6 Qur'anic texts with varying wording (ordered by the 3rd Caliph, Uthman)
2.7 Competing prayer books (at Toledo)
2.8 Abelard forced to burn his own book (at Soissons)
2.9 The writings of Arnold of Brescia (in France and Rome)
2.10 Nalanda University
2.11 Samanid Dynasty Library
2.12 Buddhist writings in the Maldives (by Royal dynasty converted to Islam)
2.13 Buddhist writings in the Gangetic plains region of India (by Turk-Mongol raiders)
2.14 Alamut Castle
2.15 Ismaili Shite writings at Al-Azhar (by Saladin)
2.16 Destruction of Cathar texts (Languedoc region of France)
2.17 Maimonides' philosophy (at Montpellier)
2.18 The Talmud (at Paris), first of many such burnings over the next centuries
2.19 Rabbi Nachmanides' account of the Disputation of Barcelona (by Dominicans)
2.20 The House of Wisdom library (at Baghdad)
2.21 Lollard books and writings (by English law)
2.22 Wycliffe's books (at Prague)
2.23 Villena's books (in Castile)
2.24 Codices of the peoples conquered by the Aztecs (by Itzcoatl)
2.25 Gemistus Plethon's Nómoi (by Patriarch Gennadius II)
3 Early Modern Period (from 1492 to 1650)
3.1 Library and archives of the Novgorod Republic (by Ivan III and Ivan IV)
3.2 Decameron, Ovid and other "lewd" books (by Savonarola)
3.3 Arabic and Hebrew books (in Andalucía)
3.4 Arabic books and archives in Oran (by Spanish conquerors)
3.5 Catholic theological works (by Martin Luther)
3.6 Lutheran and other Protestant writings (in the Habsburg Netherlands)
3.7 Scandinavian Runic and other Medieval manuscripts (During Swedish and Danish
Reformation)
3.8 Tyndale's New Testament (in England)
3.9 The Bibliotheca Corviniana (by Ottoman Army)
3.10 The works of Galen and Avicenna (by Paracelsus)
3.11 English monastic libraries (during the Dissolution of the Monasteries)
3.12 Servetus's writings (burned with their author at Geneva, and also burned at
Vienne)
3.13 The Historie of Italie (In England)
3.14 Religious and other writings of the Saint Thomas Christians (by the Portuguese
Church in India)
3.15 Maya codices (by Spanish Bishop of Yucatan)
3.16 Cluny Abbey's library (by Huguenots)
3.17 Monastic library in Utrecht (by militant Protestants)
3.18 Arabic books in Spain (owners ordered to destroy their own books by King Philip
II)
3.19 "Obscene" Maltese poetry (by the Inquisition)
3.20 Arwi books (by Portuguese in India and Ceylon)
3.21 Bernardino de Sahagún's manuscripts on Aztec culture (by Spanish authorities)
3.22 Books from the Bibliotheca Palatina (by Catholic troops)
3.23 Luther's Bible translation (by German Catholics)
3.24 Uriel da Costa's book (By Jewish community and city authorities in Amsterdam)
3.25 Marco Antonio de Dominis' writings (in Rome)
4 Early Modern Period (1650 to 1800)
4.1 Books burned by civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities between 1640 and
1660 (in Cromwell's England)
4.2 Socinian and Anti-Trinitarian books (by secular and church authorities in the Dutch
Republic)
4.3 Earl of Worcester's library (by New Model Army)
4.4 Book criticising Puritanism (in Boston)
4.5 Manuscripts of John Amos Comenius (by anti-Swedish Polish partisans)
4.6 Quaker books (in Boston)
4.7 Pascal's "Lettres provinciales" (by King Louis XIV)
4.8 Great Fire (London)
4.9 Hobbes books (at Oxford University)
4.10 Muslim and Jewish books (during capture of Buda by Austrian troops)
4.11 Swedish National Archives
4.12 Mythical (and/or mystical) writings of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (by rabbis)
4.13 Protestant books and Bibles (by Archbishop of Salzburg)
4.14 Catholic books at Scalan Seminary in Scotland (by British soldiers and Protestant
militias)
4.15 Plays of the John Warburton collection
4.16 Amalasunta (by Carlo Goldoni)
4.17 The writings of Johann Christian Edelmann (by Imperial authorities in Frankfurt)
4.18 Voltaire's Doctor Akakia (by Frederick the Great)
4.19 Books that offended Qianlong Emperor
4.20 Anti-Wilhelm Tell tract (Canton of Uri)
4.21 Books of Voltaire (by French authorities)
4.22 Vernacular Catholic hymn books (at Mainz)
4.23 Cluny Abbey's library (in the French Revolution)
4.24 The Libro d'Oro (in the French-ruled Ionian Islands)
4.25 Egyptian archaeological finds (threatened burning by French scholars)
5 Industrial Revolution period
5.1 "The Burned Book" (by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov)
5.2 Musin-Pushkin's library (In Great Moscow Fire)
5.3 Records of the Goa Inquisition (by Portuguese colonial authorities)
5.4 Original Library of Congress Collection (by British troops)
5.5 The Code Napoléon (by German Nationalist students)
5.6 William Blake manuscripts (by Frederick Tatham)
5.7 Count István Széchenyi's book (by conservative Hungarian nobles)
5.8 Early braille books (in Paris)
5.9 Library of St. Augustine Academy, Philadelphia (by anti-Irish rioters)
5.10 Libraries of Buddhist monasteries (during the Taiping Rebellion)
5.11 Chinese literary works (By Anglo-French troops in Beijing)
5.12 "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (by Union General Benjamin Butler)
5.13 Libraries in Confederate cities (during Sherman's March to the Sea)
5.14 Edmond Potonie's papers (by French Police)
5.15 On the Ancient Cypriots (by Ottoman Authorities)
5.16 Library of Strasbourg (in German bombardment)
5.17 Library of the Louvre (during suppression of the Paris Commune)
5.18 "Lewd" books (by Anthony Comstock and the NYSSV)
5.19 Turkish library at Turnovo (by the Russian Army)
5.20 Pedigrees and books of Muslim law and theology (By the Mahdi in Sudan)
5.21 Emily Dickinson's correspondence (on her orders)
5.22 Ivan Bloch's research on Russian Jews (by Tsarist Russian government)
5.23 Italian Nationalist literature (by Austrian authorities in Trieste)
5.24 Early edition of Dubliners (by publisher)
6 World War I and interbellum era
6.1 Leuven University Library (by World War I German Army)
6.2 Books in Serbian (by World War I Bulgarian Army)
6.3 Valley of the Squinting Windows (at Delvin, Ireland)
6.4 George Grosz's cartoons (By court order in Weimar Germany)
6.5 Irish National Archives (in Civil War)
6.6 Plunkett family records (in Civil War)
6.7 Margaret Sanger's Family Limitation (by British court order)
6.8 Yakov Blumkin's autobiography (by Soviet authorities)
6.9 Jewish, anti-Nazi and "degenerate" books (by the Nazis)
6.10 Theodore Dreiser's works (at Warsaw, Indiana)
6.11 Works of Goethe, Shaw, and Freud (by Metaxas dictatorship in Greece)
6.12 Books, Pamphlets and Pictures (by Soviet authorities)
6.13 Pompeu Fabra's library (by Franco's troops)
7 World War II
7.1 Leuven University Library (by World War II German occupation troops)
7.2 Jewish and Polish libraries at the Dąbrowa Basin, Poland (by Nazi occupiers)
7.3 Chinese libraries (by World War II Japanese troops)
7.4 Works in the British Museum (by German bomber planes)
7.5 Publishers and booksellers in Paternoster Row, London (by German bomber
planes)
7.6 National Library and City Archives in Naples (by German troops)
7.7 Jean Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers (by French prison guard)
7.8 Jewish books in Alessandria (by pro-Nazi mob)
7.9 André Malraux's manuscript (by the Gestapo)
7.10 Various libraries in Warsaw, Poland (during World War II)
7.11 Books in the National Library of Serbia (by World War II German bomber planes)
7.12 Douai Municipal Library
7.13 Books in German libraries (by World War II Allied bomber planes)
7.14 The Biblioteca Palatina in Parma (by World War II Allied bomber planes)
7.15 Library at Brussels Palace of Justice in Brussels, by retreating Nazis, Sept. 4 1944
8 Cold War era and 1990s
8.1 The books of Knut Hamsun (in post-World War II Norway)
8.2 Post-World War II Germany
8.3 Books in Kurdish (in north Iran)
8.4 Comic book burnings, 1948
8.5 Books by Shen Congwen (by Chinese booksellers)
8.6 Judaica collection at Birobidzhan (by Stalin)
8.7 Communist and "fellow traveller" books (by Senator McCarthy)
8.8 Memoirs of Yrjö Leino (By Finnish government, under Soviet pressure)
8.9 Wilhelm Reich's publications (by U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
8.10 Mordecai Kaplan's publications (by Union of Orthodox Rabbis)
8.11 Hungarian Revolution of 1956
8.12 Archives of Edmond Charlot (by OAS)
8.13 University of Algiers library (by OAS)
8.14 Brazil, military coup, 1964
8.15 Religious, Anti-Communist and Genealogy books (in the Cultural Revolution)
8.16 Siné's Massacre (during power struggle in "Penguin Books")
8.17 Beatles Burnings – Southern USA, 1966
8.18 Writings of Bohumil Hrabal (by both Communist regime and dissidents)
8.19 Leftist books in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship
8.20 Book burning caused by Viet Cong in South Vietnam
8.21 Burning of Jaffna library
8.22 The Satanic Verses (worldwide)
8.23 Oriental Institute in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992)
8.24 National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992)
8.25 Abkhazian Research Institute of History, Language and Literature and National
Library of Abkhazia (by Georgian troops)
8.26 The Nasir-i Khusraw Foundation in Kabul (by the Taliban regime)
8.27 Morgh-e Amin publication house in Tehran (by Islamic extremists)
9 21st century
9.1 Abu Nuwas poetry (by Egyptian Ministry of Culture)
9.2 Iraq's national library, Baghdad 2003
9.3 Harry Potter books (in various American cities)
9.4 Inventory of Prospero's Books (by proprietors Tom Wayne and W.E. Leathem)
9.5 New Testaments in city of Or Yehuda, Israel
9.6 Non-approved Bibles, books and music in Canton, North Carolina
9.7 Bagram Bibles
9.8 2010–11 Florida Qur'an burning and related burnings
9.9 Operation Dark Heart, memoir by Anthony Shaffer (by the U. S. Dept. of Defense)
9.10 Gaddafi's Green Book
9.11 The burning of the library in the Institut d'Égypte in Cairo
9.12 Suspected Colorado City incident
9.13 Qur'ans in Afghanistan
9.14 Manuscripts in Timbuktu
9.15 Anti-Climate change book at San Jose State University
9.16 National Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014)
9.17 The Hindus: An Alternative History (under court order in India)
9.18 ISIS book burning
9.19 Harry Potter and other books
9.20 Zhenyuan, China