Keywords

• On November 9th 1731
• King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia entrusted the Count of Pralormo
• Regent of the Royal Chancellery
• with the task of carrying out a secret inquiry on the Marquis of Cortanze
• by this time nearing the end of his term as Viceroy.
• The scene is early eighteenth-century Sardinia
• where the new dominators' initial cautious and pragmatic reformist approach has yet to undermine the slow course of the Kingdom's economic and social life. Here
• the persistent government official conducts this inquiry: he studies the documents in depth
• doggedly examines witnesses and scrupulously prepares reports about an accusation directly involving the Sovereign's highest representative on the island in some instances of serious corruption. This scandalous affair threatens to compromise the prestige of the house of Savoy in the eyes of its new subjects