The eighteenth century witnessed the promotion of cultural works on a
mass scale never seen before, with a parallel rise in the
number of publishers and printers. All of this new activity
made for heavy work for the censors. The boom in books was
accompanied by one in the theater. On display here is The
False Female Twins, a comedy of mistaken identities.
The play was staged for the first time in Trieste for the
Carnevale, the period that comprises Mardi Gras, of 1722.
On the pages to the right, one can see a declaration from the
author that "Everything which does not conform to the true
teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church is only a pure
jest of poesy and not the sentiment of the author, who declares
himself a true Catholic." On the other side is the imprimatur,
which conceded that the text was suitable for publication.
A project of The Digital Scriptorium, Special
Collections Library, Duke University. December
1996
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/mazzoni/exhibit/
