Note 3 — INTRODUCTION. Part I. CARLO GOZZI AND PIERO ANTONIO GRATAROL.

Gratarol was not formally divorced from his wife. This appears from several passages of his Narrazione Apologetica. It may, however, be here observed that scandalous irregularities with regard to matrimony formed one of the main signs of Venetian decadence. Between 1782 and 1796 the Council of Ten received no fewer than 264 petitions for divorce, and the Patriarch is said to have had 900 applications at one time before him, requiring his decision in matters relating to a dissolution of the marriage tie. See Magrini, op. cit., p. 23; and Macchi, Storia del Concilio dei Dieci, vol. ii. p. 355. It seems that the most shameless reasons were collusively alleged by the parties in these cases for breaking a tie which the Church regarded as indissoluble. In 1782 the Ten passed a law requiring a divorced woman to enter a convent.