Introduction

On Tuesday 8 July 1567 the Inquisition of Rovigo, in the Republic of Venice, ended a trial for heresy by issuing a sentence against the poet, playwright, teacher, performer, and orator Luigi Groto. Like many other free-minded men of letters of his age, he was condemned for the books he owned, the ideas he held, and the texts he had written. The difference was that Groto had been blind since he was eight days old. All the written culture he had received and produced had passed through orality.1