A test of faith by fire
As they slowly pushed back the Moorish power base in Andalucía, zealous Christian forces realised that they had a new heresy with which to contend: the Mozarabic rite. Christians who had been living under Islamic rule had developed their own understanding of the Bible and it contradicted Rome's. After Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085, he resolved on a test to prove once and for all the truth of Roman Catholicism to its subjects. A prayer book from each religion was thrown in a fire, and the first to disappear would be the false faith. Unfortunately for him, the Catholic book lost.

A torch for the Inquisition
Four hundred years later, book burning still had a spiritual home in southern Spain. In the late 15th century, the Koran and other Islamic holy texts were torched in Granada, at the behest of the Inquisition. Heinrich Heine, the German playwright, wrote about this in 1821, stating: “Where they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn humans.” In 1933, his works would be among those destroyed by the Nazis, and less than a decade after that, his prophecy came true.

Blind prejudice
Louis Braille developed the writing system that bears his name after discovering that the French Army had researched a method of tactile writing using dots. He improved upon it and, aged 15, introduced it to his school for the blind in Paris. The system enabled blind people to read and write as well as many sighted people. Not everyone approved though. P. Armand Dufau, the school's assistant director, believed it made the blind “too independent”. On becoming director, Dufau ordered the burning of the school's - by then extensive - collection of Braille books. The code survived, however, being maintained in secret among the students.

Harry too hot to handle
“Behind that innocent face is the power of satanic darkness,” Pastor Jack Brock said in 2001 as he inaugurated a mass book-burning in Alamogordo, New Mexico. “Harry Potter is the Devil and he is destroying people.” He had led his congregation to a large bonfire where they were throwing copies of the Harry Potter books in the fire. To help to keep the flames burning, the tales of the boy wizard were supplemented by Stephen King novels, ouija boards and AC/DC records.

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