Leonardo said:
My only worry is if we actually inherited this text from the 1997 version.
Again, unless we find actual film proof we'll never know.
Which reminds me, some days ago I actually saw a blog post where it said the blogger had just* sold a 16 mm full lenght italian print. I would give my right kidney just to look at it.
*JEDIT: I mean at the time the post was written, a couple of years ago at least.
More than likely, if you think that nobody saw the subs until 1997 (except in the theatrical version of 1977)