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An old tradition of burning of any objects that are regarded as sinful or immoral, as if a bonfire fueled by the condemned objects would erase the social problems associated with them. The most infamous of such bonfires took place on February 7, 1497. The extremist Catholic priest Girolamo Savonarola organized a great public burning in Florence, a burning of what he saw as the frivolities of the Medici reign, and in particular that of Lorenzo de' Medici, whom Savonarola blamed for decadence and immorality (which the zealous priest defined as any art that did not portray Jesus or anything Biblical; nudity and paganism in contemporary art irked his one-track mindset). While prostitutes were beaten and gay men were burned alive on his orders, Savonarola's campaign centered on the burning of books, paintings, sculptures, cosmetics, wigs, fancy clothing, mirrors, jewelry, masks, playing cards, scripts of secular songs, musical instruments, anything that Savonarola deemed extravagant.

A "bonfire of the vanities" can be as a metaphor to refer to the censorship or ban on "controversial" materials.

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