Abstract

The story of "Abbesse de Castro", known until today only in the transfiguration of Stendhal and writings derived from it, is reconstructed through the minutes of the trial held by order of Pope Gregory XIII in Rome by the criminal court of Auditor Camerae between 1573 and 1574 and other unpublished papers. The new documentation shed light not only on the true identity of the protagonists and the circumstances in which the scandal matured but also on the real efficacy of post-Tridentine Church reforms with regard to reorganization of the monastic life, repression of ecclesiastical crime and control over bishops. From trial to literary transposition, the story is declined on three levels of narrative from which emerges an elusive truth, a reflection of the different judicial, polemic or fictional purposes attributed to evidence assessment, sources interrogation and facts reconstruction.