Gerard van Swieten arrived in Vienna in 1745 as the personal physician of Empress Maria Theresia 1745. He set about making reforms to the Austrian health and university systems. He was also active in as a censor for 21 years, while making a concerted effort to judge books on the basis of rational and scientific considerations. He was also, however, responsible for commissioning the destruction of banned books.

This four-page list, signed by Gerard van Swieten, contains 42 published works which had been reported and submitted to the authorities by various citizens prior to the destruction of the books. This form of retroactive censorship primarily affected foreign literature. The jurist and political scientist Christian Freiherr von Senckenberg submitted a collection of the works of the French philosopher Rousseau along with the work Anti-Rousseau by François Gacon. A London edition of Voltaire’s Candide from 1759, and Franz von der Trenck’s autobiography Leben und Thaten des Freyherrn von der Trenck from 1745 were also blacklisted by the censor.