Censura e autocensura: riflessioni di una modernista

The article aims to explore two different approaches polarizing current debates in early modern studies on censorship. The traditional one essentially considers censorship as the result of external powers and coercive norms; the other one tends to look at censorship and self-censorship as basic internal elements of the communicative process, thus minimizing the differences between censors and their victims. The paper discusses the advantages and drawbacks of these paradigms in the historiographical context, before finally focusing on that peculiar and elusive form of self-censorship that goes under the name of «Aesopian Language».