The Candlebearer. Bilingual Еdition

In 1582 Giordano Bruno published a characteristic work, "Il candelaio", or "The Candlebearer", a satire in which he exhibits in a marked degree the false taste then in vogue among the humanists, many of whom mistook obscenity for humour. 

Amongst the critics that have examined the play over the centuries, there is a prevailing interpretation of the text as a work which signifies the end of a genre and a general disapproval of its content. Luigi Riccoboni, an eighteenth-century expert on Italian comedy and author of Histoire du theater italien, wrote, “there are thoughts in his play which could appeal to a few individuals but which generally horrify decent people.”