"Censur'd to be Much Inferiour": 'Paradise Lost' and 'Regained' in Italian

The essay highlights the historical evolution and the peculiarities of Italian translations of Milton’s epics. The homeland of classicism and stronghold of Catholicism often subordinated aesthetic judgment to moral judgment, and Milton appeared too unorthodox and irregular to suit the cultural and religious expectations of Italian readership. Thus, despite its relevance in Milton’s cultural development, Italy has been a major contributor to the ‘conspiracy of silence’ denounced by Waldock. In fact, the common practice of Italian translators was to self-censor or ‘improve’ Paradise Lost drastically: one thinks of Rolli’s longed-for fidelity which had to yield to contemporary religio-cultural pressures, or to Papi’s domesticating adaptations and expurgations. Special attention is devoted to the ‘conspiracy within the conspiracy’, namely the secular neglect of Paradise Regained, with a detailed analysis of the few past Italian versions and a discussion of the linguistic and theoretical challenges the author had to face in his own translation.