The Italian Comedia of the 16th Century: Renewal of Classical Models

Abstract

The study of the specifics of the development of Italian literature and theater cannot be interpreted without recourse to the socio-cultural context of the era. The XVI century was the heyday of court culture, developing formal models that needed to be viewed as role models. The Ferrara Court becomes the trendsetter of experiments with Latin comedies for Northern and Central Italy. This paper attempts to disprove the idea of reducing the Italian comedy of the XVI century to a simple imitation of the classical models of Plautus and Terence. Theatrical performances by contrast were a representation of Italian reality, accomplished through the refining of previous traditions. The analysis of correlations between “new” and “old” comedy, carried out by means of the example of L. Arisoto's prologues to “La Cassaria” (1508) and “I Suppositi” (1509) and B. Castiglione to “La Calandria” (1513), occupies the central place of the present paper.