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The Short, Lascivious Lives of Two Venetian Theaters, 1580-85

Author(s): Eugene J. Johnson

Source: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3, (Autumn, 2002), pp. 936-968

Published by: Renaissance Society of America

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261561

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TheShort,LasciviousLives

of TwoVenetianTheaters,1580-85*

by EUGENE J. JOHNSON

Theteatroall'italiana,orItalianoperahousewithboxes,was oneofthe mostsuccessfulbuilding

typesinventedduringtheRenaissance,butfragmentaryand ambiguousevidencehas made

locatingitsoriginsdifficult.Thisarticleproposesthatthoseoriginsaretobefoundin two theaters

for commediadell'artebuilt in Venicein 1580 anddestroyedbyorderof theCouncilof Tenin

1585 (m.v.). Thehistoryof thesetwo theatersis sketchedherefor thefirst time bymeansofdocumentsrecentlyfound in theArchiviodi Stato, Venice,that also includenewinformationrelatedto Palladio'sTeatro

Olimpicoin Vicenza.Therolethe two Venetiantheaters

playedin the

economic,politicalandsocialhistoryofthecityissuggested.

tudies of the theaterarchitectureof the ItalianRenaissancehave mainlyfocused on two issues. One is the reconstruction of ancient theaterson

paper by humanist architectssuch as Alberti or Palladio.' The second is the

construction, by ruling princes or by aristocratic societies such as the

compagniedella calza in Venice2 or the Accademia Olimpica in Vicenza, of

performance spaces to which audiences were invited. In the late sixteenth

centurya third

development,often overlooked

byarchitecturalhistorians,

was far more important for the subsequent history of theater architecture:

the construction in Venice by patrician entrepreneursof two theaters with

boxes rented to a paying public. These two theaters were the ancestors of the

teatroall'italiana, the Italian opera house that spread across Europe in the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, following the continent-wide success

of the new art form of Italian opera. Nicola Mangini has called them "una

novita in assoluto" (an absolute novelty) both in Italyand in Europe.3Of these Venetian theaters,built for performancesby commediadell'arte

troupes,4 no physical evidence remains. Indeed, they perished without

leaving a known visual trace, and no detailed written account of their

*Thedatesin thisarticlearefromthe Venetiancalendar,inwhich the newyearbeganon

1 March.I have chosento follow the Venetiansystembecausecarnivalseason,when most

theatricalperformancestookplace,occurredbetweenChristmasand Lent and so generallyfell convenientlyinto one calendaryear.I would like to thank the staff of the Archiviodi

Stato,Venice(henceforthASV),for theirgracioushelpand BethGlixonforreadingadraftof

this article.

'Forthismaterial,seeparticularlyKleinand Zerner.2Theclassicstudyof thesecompaniesisVenturi.

3Mangini,1989, 12

4Good andsomewhatcomplimentarybibliographiesfor the commediadell'artearein

RichardsandRichards,323-37, andAndrews,280-88.

RenaissanceQuarterly55 (2002):936-968 [936]



VENETIAN THEATERS, 1580-85

architecturalform has come tolight.

The scarceevidencefortheirexistence

is so fragmentarythat it hasbeen impossibleeven to date them securely.Documentsrecentlyfoundin the Archiviodi Stato,Venice,however,now

finallymakeit possibleto outlinethehistoryof theseimportantstructures.

The VenetianpublictheaterswerefirstmentionedbyFrancescoSanso-

vinoin 1581 in his Venetiacitthnobilissimaetsingolare.Sansovinostatesthat

therehadrecentlybeen built in Venicetwo theatersforthe performanceof

comedies,bothin theparishof San Cassiano.Thuswe havelonghadadate

of circa1580 for the constructionof thesetwo buildings.Sansovinopro-videslittle additionalinformation,save to saythat one theaterwasround

andthe otheroval.5

No subsequentsource tells what became of thesestructures,and no

reliableadditionalinformationon thesetheatersseemsto haveappearedfor

three hundredyears. In 1879 Giovanni Sforzapublished a numberof

importantdocumentsrelatedto them in abookof someraritywhosetitle,E

M. Fiorentinie i suoicontemporaneilucchesi:Saggiodi storialetterariadel

secoloXVII,6hardly suggested to later scholars that it might contain

information crucial to the study of Venetian theaters of the sixteenthcentury.Mangini,almost a centurylater,resurrectedSforza'sdocumentsin

his Teatridi Veneziaof 1974, a book that greatlyadvancedthe study of

Venetiantheaters.7

What Sforza'sdocumentsmakeclear,if one readsthemcarefully,is that

in Veniceby 1581 thereexistedmorethanone theaterwithpalchi,or boxes.

Theseboxescould be closedoff,presumablybydoors,to hide theirinteriors

from the eyesof passersby,who walkedin surroundingcorridorsthat re-

quired artificial light.8 If no one could look into the boxes, then byimplicationtheirsideshad to be enclosedbywallsthatconcealedtheirinte-

5Sansovino,206, "SonopocodistantidaquestoTempio(ofS. Cassiano)due Teatribel-

lissimiedificati,con spesagrande,l'uno in formaovata et l'altrorotonda,capacidi grannumerodipersone;perrecitarvine'tempidelCarnevale,Comedie,secondol'usodellacitta."

6Sforza,793-806, convenientlyrepublishedby Mancini,Muraro,Povoledo,xxv-xxvii.

7Mangini, 1974, 11, n. 6, learnedof Sforza'sbook from Giazotto, 908-09, but to

Mangini belongs the credit for understandingthe importanceof Sforza'spublication.

Mangini'sbook followedthe importantarticleby PadoanUrbanof 1966 andthe exhibition

of 1971 organizedby L.Zorzi,Muraro,Pratoand E.Zorzi,who seem to havebeenunaware

of the documentspublishedby Sforza.Of these,theymention(49, n. 18) onlyone (Sforza,doc. 6, 798-99), but cite its locationin the ASVwithoutnotingitspriorpublication.

8Sforza,doc. 6, 798-99 (ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, Comune,R. 36, 9r., 25 September1581):"... sia statofabricatopiu d'unloco perrecitarle loro inonestissimecomedie."and

doc. 8, 800-01 (ASV,Consigliode'Dieci,Comune,R. 36, 180v.,5January1582):"Nepos-sanoprincipalmenteesserrecitateessecomedie,se non saracon vertitrriferitoalliCapidi

937



RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

riors from theadjoining palchi.9

How the boxesmay

haveopened

toward

the stage is not clear. Goings-on in the closed boxes caused considerable

scandal. The documents describe no specific acts, but one can hardly go

wrong if one characterizesthem as sexual, nor can one exclude the possibil-

ity that some of Venice's famous courtesans may have set up shop in the

palchi. 0 The existence of the boxes, the scandalous nature of the behavior

therein, and the concern expressedover the boxes by the Jesuits resident in

Venice were also documented by a letter written in October, 1581, by the

Florentine ambassadorto Venice, which waspublished

in AlessandroD'An-

cona'sOrigini del teatroitaliano of 1891, the firstgreatstudy of the modern

theater in Italy."Sforza's documents escaped the attention of Pompeo Molmenti, the

most avid chronicler of Venetian history in the early part of the twentieth

century. To Molmenti goes credit, however, for discovering a tantalizing, if

ambiguous piece of evidence: a passage in an unpublished manuscript of

1607 by an obscure writer from southern Italy, Antonio Persio, who de-

scribed a theater that stood in Venice when he had lived there.12Persiospokeof one theater,made of wood, almost all of whose boxes were rented by Ve-

netian nobles, who took their wives and daughters to the foul-mouthed

comedies performed therein. According to Persio, the Jesuitshad convinced

the Venetian Senateto orderthe destruction of the theater to avoid the dangerof someone's setting fire to it during a performance, thereby sending up in

smoke a large part of the Venetian patriciate.13Mangini, in trying to date

questoConsiglio,che siano stati tutti li palchidel luoco apertidallaparteda driedo,et

traversaticon cantinelle,in modo che chiascunoche passera,possi veder per dentro di

essipalchi."

9Scholarswho took up the subjectof the historyof the box beforeManginirescued

Sforza'sdocumentsbelievedthatthe modernboxonlyappearedin the fourthdecadeof the

seventeenthcentury.SeeMagagnato,1954,274; Povoledo,1960, 1506;Muraro1962, 1539,and 1964, 92-93. Manginihimself, 1974, 21, n. 11, and22, n. 16, was evena bit tentative

abouttheirconfiguration.

'?I have searchedin the Archiviodi Stato,Venice,forevidenceof misbehaviourin the

boxes,so farwithoutsuccess."

D'Ancona,2:452. "Sitieneche li pretigiesuitihannoreclamatoassai,che nellipalchidi quellidueloghifabricatia postasi operasseromoltescelleratezze,conscandolo."

'2Molmenti,1906, 438, and1927-29,411. He erroneouslybelievedthis theaterto have

beenthe one erectedby Palladioin Venicein 1565. A biographicalsketchof Persio(1542-

1612) isgivenbyArtese,1-5, to which he appends,n. 1, a bibliography.I amgratefulto Fre-

derickIlchmanforcallingArtese'spublicationto myattention.

13Persio,1607, 38 r&v.See InventarideiManoscritte,104.Appendix8.

938




the theatermentionedbyPersio,noted thatin 1576 Persiohadpublishedabook in Venicein which he statedthathewas then in thecity.14No corrob-

oratingevidenceexisted,however,to connect thisyearwith the theaterhe

described.Thatwas theyearin whichperhapsthirtypercentof thepopula-tion of Venice perished in a devastating plague; no performancesof

comedieswouldhavebeenpossiblethen. BecausePersio'sremarkswere so

problematic,Manginiwasled to take them as theproductof theunreliable

memoryof a man writing about events that had happenedsome thirty

yearsearlier.

The fundamentalgovernmentalact thatcontrolledalltheatricalperfor-mancesin Venicethroughoutthe sixteenthcentury,in theoryif not alwaysin practice,wasa decreeof the Councilof Tenof 1508. Accordingto this

ruling,the comediesnewlyintroducedinto thecitycontained"manylewd,lasciviousandmost unwholesomewordsandacts."15For reasonsof publicmorals,over which the Tenwatchedassiduously,no comedies,tragedies,

eclogues,or othersuchsimilarperformancescould begivenin thecityor its

territorieswithout theexpresspermissionof the Ten. The law wasnot sys-

tematicallyobserved,however.We knowthattheatricalperformanceswere

given many times during the following century for which the registri(records)of theTen containno correspondingpermits.Forinstance,forthe

Carnivalof 1565 Palladiobuilta theaterfor theperformanceof a tragedybythe lastof the compagniedellacalza,16but no permitfor this performancewas enteredin the registroof the Councilof Ten.'7

Variousexplanationsfor thissituation,some or all of whichmayhave

beenoperativeatone timeoranother,suggestthemselves.Insomeyears,the

Ten,a bodythatchangedmembershipannually,simplyignoredits own de-cree. Indeed, the old men who made up the council had often been

membersof acompagniain theiryouth.Therewasalsoanimportantclassis-

14Mangini, 1974, 18, citing Persio,1576. PadoanUrban,n. 25, pointed out that in

1591 Persiowasin Venice,wherehis, Del bercaldocostumatodagliantichiromaniwaspub-lishedin 1593. Bothbooksarecitedin MinieriRicci, 266, and Tafuridi Nard6,9. Persio's

birthand deathdatesarenot clear;he wasactivebetweenca. 1575 and 1607.

'5Sforza,793, "multaverbaet actusturpialasciviaet inhonestissima."

16Mancini,Muraro,Povoledo,67-85.

'7ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, Comune,R. 26 and27, which cover1563 through1566,do not appearto containanypermissionsfor theatricalperformances.Performanceswereal-

lowedin 1561,however.Ibid.,Registro25, 1561-62,76r.30 January1561:"Cheperquesti

pochigiornidelpresentecarnevalsiaconcesso,che si possanorecitarcomedie,et altrerepre-sentationi,restandoper6in reliquisforma la parte,che prohibiscesimili representationi."The vote was13yes,4 no, and 0 abstentions.I havenot searchedthepre-1561recordsof the

Councilof Ten.

939




sue. Theyoung patricians

whoput

on theatricalentertainments at carnival

belonged to the same social group as the members of the Council of Ten.

Their performances employed no lower-classpersons who earned their liv-

ings as professionalactors;the young aristocratstook all the roles. As we will

see, the Ten had a particular problem with comedians who acted for profit.

Also, most Venetian patricians, regardlessof age, simply enjoyed going to

these plays. If, however, a comedy set the whole city on its ear because of

raunchy dialogue, as happened during the carnival of 1529, the Ten could

invoke its own law of 1508 and prohibit furtherperformancesof the offen-

sive play. In 1529 the Ten were forced to allow the linguistically offensive

comedy preparedby the compagniadei reali to go forward, not just because

of the money that had been spent on its preparation, but mainly because

there were distinguished visitors in town, courtiers of the Holy Roman Em-

peror CharlesV, who would be sorely disappointed if the performancewere

cancelled.18 The Ten were readyto use comedy as a tool of diplomacy, a sub-

ject about which they cared far more than the use of offensive words in a

carnival entertainment. In the following century the Ten allowed a comedy

to be performed during the sacred season of Lent - when, even in the most

permissiveof times, comedies were nevergiven - to entertain the bored ret-

inue of the Frenchambassador.19

The disappearance of the compagniedella calza after 1565 coincided

with a rise in the popularity of the travelingtroupes of comedians who had

been coming to Venice for some time, performing in private palaces, con-

vents or 'stanze"(literally,rooms) adapted for their use. Of the appearancesof these stanze we know nothing, unfortunately. Only by implication does it

become clear that they were in many essentials different from the theatersthat rose in 1580, because the novelty of the architecturalform of the latter

caused unforeseen problems.In the decade between Palladio'stheater of 1565 and the plague of 1576

the Ten gave permission three times - in 1568,20 1573 and 1575 - for

comedies to be performed. Although the registriare silent for the other years,we cannot assume that no comedies were then performed. The language of

the registrofor 1573 is typical:

'8Sforza,Doc. 2, 795-96, dated16 February1529.

'9Cozzi,1959, 190-91.

20ASV,Consigliode'X, Comune,R.28, 1567-68, 164v,19January1568:"Chesiadata

licentia per questavolta a quelli, che recitanocomedieche per questiprossimi giornidi

Carnevalesolamente essi comediantipossino recitarle loro comedie, et con conditione

espressa,che essesianofinite di recitaralletrehoredi notte alpih,dovendorecitarhonesta,et

modestamente."The vote was 13yes,3 no, 1 abstention.

940




Thatpermission

begiven

this time to thosewhoperform

Comediesthatonlyfromnow until the end of the upcomingCarnivalcan theseComediansper-

form theircomediesin thiscity,withexpressconditionthattheybe finishedat

the thirdhourof the nightat the latest,havingto beperformedmodestlywith

wholesomenessanddignity.21

The hours of the night were measured by dividing the time from sundown

to sunrise into twelve segments. Since the time of darkness exceeded the

time of daylight during the winter season of carnival,one hour of the nightwould have been more than 60 minutes long. Thus, if sunset in Februaryoc-

curredsometime around 5:00 p.m., the third hour of the night would have

begun sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m.The jubilee year of 1575 was treateddifferently.After a preamble that

noted the desire of the Ten to increase piety in the city to gain favor with

God, the followingparte, or motion, was passed:

Havingto takeupwith alldue reverenceand devotion the mostholyjubilee,concededto thiscity bythe infinitemercyof the LordGodbymeansof the su-

premePontiff,accordingto thatwhichwaspublishedthe firstof thismonth,it

is convenientto removeall thoseimpedimentswhich can make the peopleofthiscityless devoted.

Let it beapprovedthatforthetimethe mostholyjubileelastscomedies,dances

andmasquerades,both in thiscityas in its territories,areprohibited,exceptfor

the last fifteendaysof carnival,that is from 20 Februaryuntil the firstdayof Lent.22

As 20 Februaryapproached, the Ten decided to keep in place the ban againstcomedies for the rest of that month, leaving, by implication, only six days in

March before the beginning of Lent for comedies to be performed.23Thecouncil's decision to order the intrusion of piety into everydayVenetian life

should be noted, because this tendency would grow even stronger in the

next decade.

During the years of the plague, 1576 and 1577 (there was already

plague in Venice in the winter of 1575, but not yet enough to cause panic),there was no thought of entertainment during carnival. Indeed, the Senate

banned public gatherings. Only in 1578 did comedies return, and when

21Ibid.,R.31, 1573-74,76v.,10November1573:"Chesiadatalicentiaperquestavoltaaquelli,cherecitanoComedie,chedam6perfinotutto'lprossimoCarnevalsolamente,essiComediantipossinorecitarle lorocomedieinquestacitta,conconditioneespressa,cheessesianofinitealletrehoredi nottealpiu,dovendoesserrecitatemodestamenteconhonesta,et

dignita."Thevotewas13yes,2 no, 1abstention.Itwasnotedthat"Lectafuitlex1508diexxixdecembriscons:X.queestin libRubeoss.to."

22Appendixla.

23AppendixIb.

941




they did, theywere

permittedwith the same

language used earlierin

the decade:

Thatpermissionbe giventhis timeto thosewho performComediesthatonlyfrom now until the end of the upcomingCarnivalcantheseComediansper-formtheircomediesin thiscity,withexpressconditionthattheybefinishedat

thefourthhourof thenightat thelatest,havingto beperformedmodestlywith

wholesomenessanddignity.24

During this carnival the Venetian government again used entertainments as

diplomatic tools. The "Archdukesof Austria and other German princes"were visiting. The Ten allowed 'unaguerrade bastoni,"(a fight on a bridgewith wooden clubs)25which the visitorshad asked to see, and the sumptuarylaws were lifted so that women attending entertainments given for the

visitors could wear whatever jewelry they wanted.26 The next year, 1579,

comedies were again permitted, with the same language noted above and

with an overwhelming majority of the votes, 13 for and 3 against, with

no abstentions.27

1580 brought a radical change in the language of the parte on which

the Ten voted to allow comedies to be performed. Suddenly, to the usual

strictures about time and "modesty and wholesomeness" was added a re-

quirement that the places where the comedies were to be given had to be

inspected for safety:

That permissionbe giventhis time to those who performcomediesthatafter

the threecomingholidaysof Christmas,theycan for all the followingcarnival

only performtheircomediesin thiscitywithexpressconditionthattheybe fin-

ished at the fourthhour of thenightat the latest,havingalso to be performed

with modestyand wholesomeness.Nor can they begin, until first there beswornstatementsfromarchitectsandspecialists,who willbe sentbytheheads

of this councildiligentlyto inspectthe placeswherethe performanceswill be

given,thattheyarestrongandsecure,so that no ruinmayhappenthere.28

24ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, Comune,R. 34, 1578-79, 49v., 15January1578:"Chesia

datalicentiaperquestavoltaaquelli,che recitanocomediechedam6perfinotutto'lpresentecarnevalsolamenteessi comediantipossinorecitarle loro comediein questacittacon condi-tion expressache esse sino finite alle quatrohore di notte al piu dovendo esserrecitade

modestamente,et con honestaet digniti."The vote was 8 yes,2 no, 2 abstentions.

25TheAustrianswereapparentlytreatedto a showsimilarto the one notedbyDavis,47,

put on forHenryIII of Francein 1574.

26ASV,Consigliode'Dieci,Comune,R. 34, 1578-79, 50r.

27Sforza,doc. 5., 798, buthe doesnot recordthe vote.ASV,Consigliode' Dieci, Co-

mune,R. 34, 1578-79, 184r.

28Appendix2a. I havequotedthe languageof thefilze here,whichendswith theword"ruina."In the transcriptionin the Registro,ASV,Consiglio de' Dieci. Comune. R. 35,1580-81, 116r.,the word"novita"is substituted.

942




Thenovelty

of thelanguagesuggests

thatthe Ten were confrontedwith a

new architecturalform thatraisedconcernsof publicsafety,for whichtheywere,of course,responsible.That new architecturalsituation must have

been createdby the constructionof the luoghi(places)forcomediesin the

months since the previouscarnival.The timingof thisdevelopmentcorre-

spondspreciselywith FrancescoSansovino'sstatement,writtenin 1580, that

two placesfor the performanceof comedieshadrecentlybeen constructed

in theparishof San Cassiano.29TheaccordbetweenSansovino'stext andthe

registroof the Ten makes a date of 1580 for these two luoghi almost

entirelycertain.

The proposalto license comedies did not receivethe necessarytwo-

thirdsmajoritywhenit wasvotedon 22 December,andso it cameupagainon the 29th, when it did receivethe necessaryvotes.30The languageabout

inspecting the places where the performanceswere to take place was

omittedfrom the secondmotion,forreasonswe do not know.Perhapstheyhadalreadybeeninspected.Performancesbeganimmediately,becauseon 4

Januaryone of theproprietorsof the twotheaters,EttoreTron,wroteto the

Duke of Ferrarathat performanceshadbeengoing on forsome daysandthat the palchi of his theater had been rented to many nobles.31This

situationis confirmedby a second letterfrom Tronto the duke,written

on 26 January.32The two theaters,as we knowparticularlyfromMangini'swork,be-

longedto EttoreTronandto AlviseMichiel,membersof patricianfamilies

thathad bothproduceddoges,althoughtheTronwererelativelatecomersto

such an honoredstate.Accordingto documentsdiscussedbelow,brothersof

Ettoreand Alvisehad also investedin these theaters.As Manginipointedout, neithermanbelongedto the richestbranchof his family.33The invest-

ments,then,musthavebeenrelativelymodest,a factthatsuggeststhat these

29Seen 5.

30Appendix2b.

31SolertiandLanza,174,Archiviodi Stato, Modena,Archiviopermaterie.Drammat-

ica.Minutedi letterea commici.B 4438/91. Text alsogivenin Mancini,Muraro,Povoledo,126. "Mi trovohaverfatto,alli comiciconfidenti,unaspesadi moltaimportanzaperil re-

citaredellecomedie,con patti,et conditionicomeperpublicoinstrumentosi pu6vedere;et

giasonopassatigiorni,chesi e principiatoarecitare,perlaqualoccasione,siha scossoperca-

paradi molti Palchi,circa D. mille, da diversiNobili di questacitth."Laterin the letter he

saysthathe has"accomodatola mettade Nobili di questacitta,"orroughly600 nobles,pluswivesandoffspring,if hewas not exaggerating.Unfortunately,Tron'sfigureis no helpin try-

ing to establishthe capacityof his theater.

32Ibid.

33Mangini,1989, 15-18.

943




early theaters did not enjoy the lavishly appointed interiors that wouldbe-

come typical of theaters built in the following century, even if Francesco

Sansovino said that they were most beautiful and built at great expense.Whatever the degree of elegance the theaters enjoyed, their owners had

managed to secure the services of the leading troupes of professional come-

dians of the day. The Tron employed the Confidenti, the Michiel the even

better-known Gelosi. The remarkable coincidence of the erection of two

similar theaters in the same year for the same purpose may be explained bythe fact that two famous comedy

troupes

needed to be accommodated.

Both theaterswere built to produce revenue, and Ettore Tron'sletter of

1580, in which he stated that he had rentedpalchi to half the nobles of the

city and taken in some 1,000 ducats, suggests that the first season was a suc-

cess.34Such diversification of investment was typical of patrician Venetian

families in the late sixteenth century, when northern Europeanswere mak-

ing significant inroads into Mediterranean trade previously dominated byVenice.35The fact that in the successive years of 1578, 1579 and 1580 the

Ten permitted the performance of comedies suggests that in post-plague

Venice there was widespread demand for entertainment, and the Michieland Tron must have decided to cash in on this demand by building their

theaters.The vote of 1579 that permitted comedies by a largemajority mayhave given the two families a false sense that such permission would con-

tinue to be renewed easily.The closervotes of 1580, which might have been

taken as a warning of things to come, occurred after the theaters had

been built.36

The Tron theater was located on the site of the present garden of

PalazzoAlbrizzi, at the intersection of the Rio San Cassian and the Rio dellaMadonnetta, on the western edge of the parishof San Cassiano.37Because it

occupied a rectangularplot, it may have been the "oval"theater mentioned

by Sansovino, with a plan perhaps similar to the Tron theater built on the

same site in the eighteenth century for which drawings survive.38 The

Michiel theater,much closer to the GrandCanal, seems to have stood on the

opposite side of the Corte del TeatroVecchio from the canal, in an area now

34Seen. 31 above.

35Sella,655-59, 686, and688, in which he suggeststhat someVenetianpatriciansmayhavehad sufficientincomein thelate sixteenthcenturyto investbothin traditionalmercan-

tile enterprisesand in newerpursuits,such as land acquisition.Mangini, 1989, 13-15,

suggestsfurtherreasonsfor theMichielandTroninvestmentsin theaters.

36Appendix2.

37Mancini,Murano,Povoledo,96-97. I amgratefulto ChuckCollins,LindsayandPe-

terJoost,and HaroldWilliams,who togetherarrangedfor me to visittheAlbrizzigarden.

38Ibid.,106-11.

944




occupiedbya blockof

apartments.39The

ploton whichit stood was almost

squarein shape,and so this theatermayhavebeenSansovino's"round"one

- thatis, with boxesarrangedin a semi-circle.Both situationsallowedac-

cessto the theatersfromnearbycanals,an importantissuein a Venicewith

relativelyfewpavedstreets.Well-dressedpatriciansattendingthe comedies

would not have cared to walkthroughmuddycalli to reachthem. What

mayhavestoodon the sites beforethe theatersis not known.It seemsmost

likelythatthe Tron andthe Michielplacedthe structuresof their theaters

insidealreadyexisting

walls and underalreadyexistingroofs.40Certainlydocumentsdiscussedbelowgivecredenceto thishypothesis.

The novita in assoluto,to useMangini'sphrase,of thesetheaterswasthe

presenceof revenue-producingboxes.Whatthesourcefor this newconcept

mayhavebeenis not clear,buttherewas a longtraditionin Veniceof usingwindowsasprivatespacesfromwhichto viewpublicevents.The windows

of the ProcuratieVecchiefilled with women in Gentile Bellini'sfamous

paintingof the Processionof CorpusChristiin PiazzaSan Marcoof 1496

(Venice,Accademia)offera casein point.Inotherpartsof thecitywindows

and balconieswererentedto spectatorsto watchtheguerredi bastoni,battleson bridgesbetweenlargegroupsof men that becameincreasinglypopularin

Venicefromthe sixteenthcenturyon. HenryIII of Francewatchedsucha

battlefroma balconyoverlookingthePontedei Carminiin 1574,41and one

can assumethatall theother balconiesand windowsaroundtheCampodei

Carminiwerethrongedby spectators.Bythe lateseventeenthcenturybalco-

niesoverlookingsuchbattlesites,wherethe occupantscould bothsee and

beseen,fetcheda muchhigherrentthana box at anoperahouse.42

One possibleprecedentis offeredbythebalconiesset betweenthepiersof theupperstoryofJacopoSansovino'sLibreriadi SanMarco.43These bal-

conies,largeenoughto accommodatefourto six people,are hidden from

eachotherbytheinterveningpiers,so thattheyact asprivatespaces.The li-

brarywas begun in 1537, and by 1553 the patronsof the building, the

procuratorsof SaintMark,beganto usethesevenbalconiesat the northend

of the libraryasprivateviewingspacesfor the festivitiesthattook placein

the Piazzettaon giovedigrasso,the finalThursdayof carnivalseason.By

39Ibid.,90, 92. PadoanUrban, 138, statedthatshehad seenfragmentsof frescoesand

architecturalelementsfrom this theater.

40A parallelcasemaybe the TeatroSant'Aponal,built in the followingcentury,which

had threerowsofpalchiinsertedin analreadyexistingspace.See Glixon and Glixon.

41Davis,47.

42Ibid.,134, 206, n. 14.

43Johnson,446-47.

945




1556 sixteen balconies were available for the procurators, and from thesebalconies they could also watch the frequent spectaclesof executions carried

out between the two columns at the south end of the Piazzetta. By 1580

these spaces had been in use for almost thirty years.44Both Sansovino's balconies and the utterly new boxes of the Michiel

and Tron theatersprovided elevated, separatedspaces for patriciansto watch

performancesand in turn to be watched. Both built on an old Venetian tra-

dition of using windows as privateviewing platforms for public spectacles.Both involved

assigning spacesto

particularpatricians,whether

theybe the

procuratorsto whom specific windows were assigned in the Libreria,or pa-tricians who leased specific boxes in the theaters for the carnival season.

Both the windows on the Piazzetta and the boxes in the theaters were spacesidentified with one occupant or family that made the occupants part of the

total spectaclewhile removing them to their own privaterealms. The theater

boxes created a novel social space, simultaneously private and public - or,

one might say, private in places of public access. Apparently, Venetians

quickly figured out how to use these rathercrampedpalchi as if they were

modern motel rooms; this behaviorbrought on a vigorous reaction from the

Council of Ten.

At the end of September 1581, the council passed an act that made it

almost impossible for professionallystaged comedies ever to be permitted in

the city again. The Ten decreed that permission for comedies "that are

performed by paid actors" could only be granted by a vote of 5/6 of the

members of the council, all being present.45This document, published by

Sforza,was supplied to him by Bartolommeo Cecchetti, the director of the

Archivio di Stato of Venice,46who seems not to have checked thefilze, thefirst drafts of the registriof the acts of the Ten. In the draft of this act, one

discovers that the qualifying phrase, "intended however are those

(comedies) performed by paid actors,"was added to the original text of the

document,47 clearly to win over those patricians on the council who must

44Ananonymousreaderfor RenaissanceQuarterlysuggestedthe intriguinghypothesisthat anotherprecedentmightbethe smallrooms,openingonto thepublicway,usedbypros-titutesin theneighborhoodadjacentto the Trontheater.A courtesancoulddisplayherselfin

herdoorwayand then closethe dooronceaclienthadentered.This readerastutelysuggestedthatthe parallelthat could be drawnbetweenwhatwent on in theselittleroomsandin the

theaterboxesmayhaveincreasedthe senseof alarmon the partof the Tenaboutthe activityin thepalchi.

45Sforza,Doc. 6, 798-99. "chesono recitatedapersonemercenarie."

46Ibid.,793, n. 1.

47Appendix3; "intendendosiper6di quelle[commedie],che sono recitatedapersonemercenarie."

946




have insisted that comediesperformed by young

men of their own class

should not be subjected to the same strictures placed on performances by

professionalactors.

The voting members of the council consisted not only of the ten men

elected annually,but also of the doge and his six counselors, so that the votes

of 15 of 17 voting members would be necessary for such permission to be

granted, an almost hopeless number to achieve. Normally resolutions deal-

ing with theatrical performances were considered by the Ten just before or

during the carnivalseason, that is, during the months of December through

February.Here the Ten took pre-emptive action in September- just before

they rotated out of office and a new council was elected at the beginning of

October - to make it almost impossible for their successorsever to permit

performances again. They were indeed successful in prohibiting perfor-mances for the carnival of 1581, as we know from the tax returns submitted

in March, 1582, by Ettore Tron and Alvise Michiel, who both declared that

their theaterswere not in use and thereforeproducing no income.48

Apparently,this decision created considerable dissatisfaction within the

city, to the point that in the following year,on 17 December 1582, the capi,or heads, of the Council of Ten forced through a repealof the 5/6 majority,and the councilors of the doge directed orally that only a simple majoritywas needed for the repeal.49Although in the next month the Ten twice voted

against motions to permit performancesduring carnival,50apparentlycom-

edies were given anyway,"togratifythe young nobles."51

This under-the-table concession, as well as the vote to repeal the 5/6

rule, came at a dramatic moment in Venetian constitutional history. By1582 a group of

agingpatricians was regularly

rotating

in and out of the

Council of Ten and the Zonta. Members of the Ten, who served for a year,could not immediately succeed themselves. But for a year they could rotate

into the Zonta (a body created in the fourteenth century to advise the Ten

on great matters of state and to spreadthe responsibility for the decision to

depose and execute Doge Marin Falier),after which they could returnto the

Council. During 1582 dissatisfaction with the way the members of the Ten

and the Zonta had turned themselves into a self-perpetuating oligarchybecame so widespreadamong the hundreds of other patricianswho made up

48Mangini,1974, 20, 24. Mancini,Muraro,Povoledo,94, 126.

49Sforza,Doc. 7, 800.

50Ibid,Doc. 8 and9, 800-02, 5 Januaryand 14January1582.

5 PadoanUrban, 138, "pergratificareli GiovaniNobili."MuseoCorrer,Mss.Cicogna2991, II, 26-28, containsa copyof the parteof 25 September1581, to which is addedthe

followingnotation:"Notache del 1582. 17.Xbre.fu la sud.aParteintromessa,& tagliata,e

si feceroCommediea S. Caxanpergratificarli GiovaniNobili."

947




theMaggior Consiglio

that a constitutional crisiserupted.52

In the fall of

1582 in a show of its displeasurethe Maggior Consiglio refusedto elect the

prepared list of fifteen names proposed for the Zonta. This action

precipitated a political crisis that Doge Nicolb da Ponte tried to solve by

bringing to the Maggior Consiglio on 7 December a palliative parte that

merely defined somewhat more clearly the roles of the Ten and the Zonta,

but the doge's proposal received an inconclusive vote, with manyabstentions. On 19 December, two days after the Ten had repealed the 5/6

rule for comedies, the doge brought hisparte back to the Maggior Consiglio,

again failing to gain a majority.The doge's councilors and the heads of the

Ten who forced the repeal of the 5/6 rule for comedies were the very same

people who wereworking with the doge to savethe power of the Ten and the

Zonta. The 5/6 rule of the previousyearmust have been seen as an egregious

example of the Council of Ten'soverreaching itself- thus the urgency to

repealthat vote just at the time far more important matterswere pending in

the Maggior Consiglio.No mention had been made of the boxes in the comedy theatersin the

Ten'sact of September, 1581, but the Ten had noted with astonishment anddisapprovalthat Venice had provided special places for such "inhonestissimi"

(most unwholesome) events. The boxes, however, were one of the most

problematic issues that the theater owners faced, as one realizes both from

the letter of the Florentine ambassador, written in October, 1581,53 just

after the council had decreed the 5/6 majority,and from the languageof the

registroof the Ten of January, 1582, when the issue of the performance of

comedies came up again. On 5 January the council voted on a parte to

permit fifteen days of comedies during carnival,but the proposal failed by a

vote of five for and ten against. In the parte the problem with the closed

boxes is clearly addressed, after the usual language about hours and

decent language:

Nor principallycan thesecomediesbe performedif the heads of this council

cannotbe assuredwith truththat all the boxesof theplaceareopenat therear,and crossedwithwooden boardsso thateveryonewho passesbycanseeinside

theseboxes,andthustheymuststayopenforallthesefifteendays,andif what

isorderedis notdone,the comedianswill immediatelyhavetheiraforesaidper-

missionto performlifted.54

52Lowryis thesourceof theaccountgivenhere.Forastudyof thegroupof menwhoran

the republicat the endof theCinquecentosee Grendler.

53Seen.11.

54Sforza,Doc. 8, 800-01. "Nepossanoprincipalm.teesserrecitateessecomedie,se non

saracon veritariferitoallicapidi questocons.o che sianostatitutti li palchidelluocoaperti

948




It is not easy to visualize exactly what the phrase "crossed with woodenboards"(traversaticon cantinelle) may have meant,55but presumablythe or-

der called for the doors to the boxes to be held in an open position bysomehow securing them with fixed pieces of wood. Otherwise, box-holders

could quietly close their doors during the noisy performances. One should

caution, however, that in no document of these years is the word "door"

mentioned in relation to the boxes. One is led, however, to assume the pres-ence of doors by inference, because the documents consistently imply that

thepossibility

to close the boxespersists.On 14 Januarythe issue came up for another vote. This time the lan-

guage of the motion was amended to address not only the closed boxes but

also the darknessof the corridorssurrounding them:

and with furthercondition that the boxeshave to be opendayandnight.and

thatlampsbe placedin all the corridorsbeforethe performancesof the come-

diesandkeptlit untiltheyareoverandeveryonehasleft the placewheretheyareperformed.56

This vote alsofailed,

with six for andeight against,

butapparently

comedies

were performed that year anyway,as we have seen, in the context of the on-

going constitutional crisis over the fate of the Ten and the Zonta, an issue

that was not settled until the following spring, when it became clear that the

Zonta could not be saved. In that same spring, on 13 April 1583, Francesco

Andreini, the head of the group of comedians known as the Gelosi, wrote to

Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, to say that he was hired to play for

Alvise Michiel, patron of the "stanzadi Venezia."57In the registroof the Ten,

however, there is no mention of comedies in 1583. The period of Andreini's

engagement is not made clear;he may have been engaged in a post-Lentenseason of comedy performancesthat were, again, allowed to happen without

dallapartedadriedo,et traversaticoncantinelle,in modocheciascuno,chepasserapossivederperdentrodiessipalchi,etcosidebbanstarapertipertuttiessixvgiorni,etnonfacen-dosiquantot predettorestinoli comediantiimmediateprividellapredetalicenzadi poterrecitarlecomedie."ASV,Consigliode'Dieci,Comune,R.36, 180v.

5In modernItaliancantinelliarethewooden beamsthatholdup stageflats,but it maybeanachronistictopushthatmeaningbackintothesixteenthcentury.Themodernmean-

ing,however,mayhelptovisualizehowthedoorswouldhavebeenheldopeninthetheatersunderdiscussionhere.

56Ibid.,Doc.9, 801-02."etconcondit.neancora,chelipalchihabbianoastarapertidi

giorno,et di notte.et li cesendelisianppostipertuttili andediinnanziil recitardellecome-die,ettenutiaccesifinoalfinediesse,etfinchetuttisianopartitidalluocodovesirecitano."ASV,Consigliode'Dieci,Comune,R.36, 1581-82,181r.

57Archiviodi Stato,Mantua,ArchivioGonzaga,E.XXXI,3.B.1256.D'Ancona,2:484-85.

949




official sanction. Actually,we have no sure evidence that these theaterswereused at any time other than carnival,nor do we have any evidence that theywere used by patrician performersas well as by paid professionals. Plays puton by aristocratstraditionally took place in private palazzi.

During the Carnival of 1584 the Gelosi specificallyasked for approvalfrom the Ten to perform in the Michiel theater,as a recently discoveredlet-

ter makes clear.58The letter itself is undated, but it is folded into the sheet of

paperon which is written the draft of theparte on which the Ten voted on 8

February

in

response

to the letter from the Gelosi.59Even

though

the Gelosi

earned their living by acting, they were not just any ordinarycomedians. In

1571 they had performed in Paris before King Charles IV. In 1574, when

Henry III of France visited Venice, the government spared no effort or ex-

pense to make his stay memorable. To that end, the Venetians asked the

Gelosi to rush from Milan to entertain Henry, and the troupe obliged, thus

putting the Venetian government under some obligation. In the followingtwo yearsthe Gelosi were again in Paris,at Henry'sinvitation.60In their let-

ter of 1584 the Gelosi reminded the Ten of the troupe's faithful service to

Venice. They also noted that they had never performed in the city without

permission, although other comedies were at that moment being given in

Venice without license. The Gelosi said that they wanted to put on their

plays legally. They promised to present works of unexceptionable content:

"pastorals,tragedies and most wholesome comedies."61More importantlyfor our purposes here, they promised that "wewill see to it that at all times

the boxes remain open in the rearso that no person will ever be able to hide

there scandalously"62- thus, of course, making absolutely clear that the

Michiel as well as the Tron theater had boxes and that in the past people hadhidden scandalously in those palchi.

The motion presented to the Ten followed closely the wording of the

letter from the Gelosi, incorporating the language about keeping the boxes

open and adding the qualification that lights be kept burning until everyonehad left the theater.63Evenso, by a vote of seven for and six against, thepartefailed to receive the required two-thirds majority, and so the issue was left

pending, apparently never to be voted again, although it was the general

58Appendix4b.

59Appendix4a.

60Abriefhistoryof the Gelosiis in RichardsandRichards,61-64.

61Appendix4b. Unfortunately,no detailsaregiven about the playsthey plannedto

perform.

62Ibid.

63Ibid.

950




practice to bring pending issues backto the council for a second vote. It is

not clear if the performances of the Gelosi went forward or not. The Ten

would not have found it easy to disappoint favorite performers of a kingwhom Venice had assiduously cultivated as a counterbalance to Spanish

power in the Mediterranean and on the Italianpeninsula.

By one of those coincidences that sometimes illuminate history, the

Rettori(Rectors) of the city of Vicenza, which was under Venetian control,

had written to the capiof the Ten the day before the inconclusive vote on the

Gelosi's petition. The Rettori,Venetian patricians appointed to govern Vice-

nza, wrote to requestthe council's opinion on the imminent performancein

that city of a tragedy in "avery noble and most sumptuous Theater."64The

tragedy,of course, was Sophocles' OedipusRex,and the theater Palladio'sTe-

atro Olimpico.65 The Rettori, as Venetian patricians, well understood the

bad odor in which theatricalperformancesof any kind were held in Venice,

and their letter seems to have been an effort to cover their tracks with the

Ten, in case something went wrong as a result of the performance of the

tragedy. Understanding the politics of the situation, they were careful to

point out the distinguished nature of the membership of the Accademia

Olimpica, the interest of foreignersin the performance, the antiquity of the

play, the expenses incurredin building the theaterand, hardlyleast in a gov-ernment built on precedent, the fact that the performancehad alreadybeen

approved by previous rectors. The Ten, with their wings newly clipped bythe Maggior Consiglio, refused to answer the Rettori.Rather, they sent the

letter on to the Senate, to which it was presented by the Savijdel Collegio.66The Collegio and the Senate answered with a ratherwonderful piece of bu-

reaucraticbuck-passing that did not fail, however, to show that they werebehaving responsibly:

... we sayto you with the Senatethatappearingto us to be sufficientthe au-

thorityyou have to providefor all thatwill be necessaryin suchan occasion,andknowingyou to be both prudentanddiligent,we want to makesurethat

you yourselvessee to it that the affairsof sucha Performancepasswith that

quietand universalsatisfactionthat areappropriate.67

There can be no question that the Senators knew about the Teatro

Olimpico. Sitting among them was Marc'Antonio Barbaro,Palladio'sgreat

champion. In Barbaro'svilla at Maser, designed by Palladio, the architect

64Appendix5c.

65ThefirstperformanceintheOlimpicowason3 March1585.Mazzonicontainsan

amplerecentbibliographyonthetheater.

66Appendix5a.

67Appendix5b and c.

951




quite possiblyhad died in

1580,the

very yearof the

designof the theater.

The greatestof all humanist reconstructionsof an ancient theater,the Teatro

Olimpico had none of the offending boxes of the Venetian comedy theaters,

but rather arenaseating, so that the entire audience was open to public scru-

tiny. In it, to use the words of the Gelosi when they promised to keep the

Michiel boxes open, "maisipossanasconderconscandaloalcunapersona."We

know that for the first performances the sexes at the Olimpico were segre-

gated, following long-established custom in court and academic theaters.

The wives of the members of the AccademiaOlimpica and other women in-

vited to the performancesat in the orchestrain rows assigned to them. The

members of the Academy, all men, sat in other rows of the orchestra,while

the arenaseats were given to men who did not belong to the Academy.68The parallelexistence of the theatersin Venice and Vicenza did not last

long, for when the next carnivalcame around, the Ten ordered the demoli-

tion of the Michiel and Tron structures. The council's swift ruthlessness is

striking. Even though its powers had been curtailed in 1582, when it de-

cided to act on an issue that was still within its purview, it did so quickly

and decisively.

During the carnival season of 1585 the orphaned children of Andrea

Tron, a brother of Ettore, addresseda remarkableletter to the doge and his

councilors, asking that their theater be allowed to reopen so that they could

have the profits from it to live on. Andrea Tron had died the year before,

leaving behind severalchildren, all under the age of ten. Whoever wrote the

letter for the children, and one suspects that their uncle Ettore was respon-

sible, he apparentlyhoped that the pleas of the young ones would soften the

heartsof the old men of the Ten. They did not.The letter, with all its groveling, awkwardlanguage and appeals to pa-

triotism and piety, is worth quoting in full. It lays out the economic reasons

behind the construction of the Tron theater and makes clear that more than

one Tron had invested in it. The letter also confirms the fact that the closed

boxes and the dirty languagesof the plays performed in the theater were the

68Oosting,174-75,publishedadocumentof 9 February1585 (notVenetianmanner)in

which the membersof theAcademy

decidedonseatingarrangements:"Anderaparte,

chesia

constituitoad essiAccademiciloco particolarenell'orchestra,ovenon sia concessoad alcun

altroil sedervi,et inoltrele moglidi tuttigliAccademicihaverdebbanoin essaorchestrauno

o due gradidopo il primo,che saradestinatoallaclarissimaSignoraCapitania,et allealtre

gentildonneVeneziane,et forestieredi conto." The documentgoeson to allowunmarried

membersto invite femalerelativesto sitwiththewives of members,andalsoforeigngentle-women living in their households.The resolutioncloses with the followingadmonition

againstmixingthe sexes:". . . con espressaprohibitionea donne et personemascherateet

travestitehaverloco nell'orchestra,et menoin altrapartedel teatroperconvenientirispetti."

952




reasons forbanning performances

therein. It makes clear that avariety

of

works was performed in the theater:comedies, eclogues, tragediesand pas-torals.69 Finally, it repeats the claim of the Gelosi that performances of

comedies were going on in other theaters.

If the greatnessof the many and infinite miseriesof our numerousfamily,AlviseTronand brothersandsisters,childrenof themost illustriousAndrea,in

recognitionof the manymeritsof ourpoor Father,and of our unhappy,cru-

elly-treatedrelativesin the very violent past War,for the slavery,and the

spillingof theirblood,

possessions,

and livesin the serviceof this Most Serene

Dominion, can everhope, at whatevertime, or meritgracefrom the accus-

tomed benevolence of YourSerenityand of YourExcellencies,now is the

necessityand theoccasion.Becauseevidentlyourmostunhappyhouseisabout

to falland to bemiserablyafflicted;ourhouse,underahappystar,onedaywith

the clearand freshexampleof ancestors,with muchfaithanddevotionmaybe

ableto spendhappilyall ourforces,andlife,together,forthe use and benefitof

this Fatherland.OurpoorandunfortunateFatherthought,for the securityof

ourmost seriousneeds,to buildaplaceto recitecomedies,employingin so do-

ing what little capitalhe had. Nor, with the growthof expenditures,did hespareto obligatehimselfgreatlyto manydebtsto the Proveditoridi Commune,

therebyto its Most ExcellentCollegio.All of this, to our disadvantage,has

fallenon ourshoulders.And hehopedbymeansof thisBuilding,throughcon-

tractsmadewith some Comedians,with the satisfactionof YourSerenityand

ofYourExcellencies,to makeajustand honestprofit.Butwhetherthroughthe

accidentsof pasttimes,a badconcept,or to put it better,our adversefortune,

in the precedingyearspermissionto playcomedies has beengivencontinu-

ously for the Theaters built by others,while to us, wretchedand unhappy,

permissionwas immediatelydenied,without any compensationor supportwhatsoever.That has been our too unhappyand wretchedfate and condition.

And ourrelatives,havingsoughtto understandthe causesof thisprohibition,wereadvisedthat the closedboxesandtheperformanceof thecomedieswith li-

centiousandunwholesomewordshavedisturbedthepublicorder;in behalfof

which we havefirmlydeterminedwith all diligenceto be vigilant.First the

boxeswill be openedandtheywill continuouslyremaincompletelyopen;and

it will be inviolablyobserved that the Comedianswho performComedies,

Eclogues,Tragedies,Pastorals,and similarthingsin ourplaceswill do so with

modesty,decencyandprudence,withoutcausingscandalor gossip,andwiththesweet,welcomeand desiredentertainmentof all thecity.And if it will seem

to YourSerenityand to YourExcellenciesto orderregulateor reformother

things,in whateverfashionor form,we offerhumblyto embrace,observeand

promptlyobey.And if in all the partsof Christianity,in Rome and Bologna,with the good permissionof His Holiness,Comediesarerecited,so canYour

69Again,no particularsabout such plays are offered.

953




SerenityandYourExcellenciesfullyjustifyconcedingsuchhelpto us,wretchedandunhappy.Prostrateat the Feetof YourSerenityandYourExcellencies,rev-

erentlywe prayandbeseechthatyou deignto favorour Comediansthatthey

mayperformComediesin ourplaceforthosedaysof carnivalthat toyourgreat

prudenceseemconvenient.Forsuchgreatbeneficencewe offercontinuouslymost affectionateprayersto the LordGod, for the increaseandhappinessof

this MostExcellentRepublicand for the preservationof YourSerenityand of

YourExcellencies.70

On 14 January 1585 the Ten, who still had jurisdiction over theaters and

with whom the doge and his councilors sat, voted on aparte that would have

allowed the Tron children to reopen their theater, as long as the comedies

were decent, the boxes kept open and the lights lit while therewere people in

the theater.71This motion failed by a vote of three for, eleven against, and

two abstentions. Immediately the Ten took up another parte, obviously

readyto hand, that eliminated the recurringproblem once and for all by or-

dering the removal of every trace of the Tron and Michiel structures:

Thatby

theheadsof thisCouncilthe NoblemenAlviseTronandchildrenof s.Andrea,or theiragents,andthe NoblemenAlviseMichieland brotherschil-

dren of s. PierAntoniobe informedthat within 15 daystheymust dismantle

entirelythe boxes,scenery,and othermovablethingsin the placestheyhave

constructedto performComedies,so thatnothingremainsfor thateffect.Oth-

erwise,after15 days,if the aforesaidNoblemen havenot obeyedand carried

out what is said,the aforementionedHeadsareorderedto takeawayand dis-

mantlefrom the aforesaidplacesall theboxes,stages,sceneryandotherthingsrelatedto performingComedies.And thewood, andother relatedthingswill

be dispersedto piouscausesand to those who haveworked,accordingto thejudgmentof theheadsof thiscouncil.72

There can be little doubt that this orderwas carriedout. In the margin of the

registroof the Ten is noted that the next day these instructions were con-

veyed to EttoreTron and PieroMichiel, the brother of Alvise.73Certainly no

furthermention of these theatersappearsin the registriof the Ten during the

ensuing decade.

The terms under which the demolition was to be carriedout arereveal-

ing, because they list the elements that, according to the Ten, constitutedthese theaters: the boxes, the scenery, the stage, and other movable things.

70Appendix6c. InthetranslationIhavetriedtosmoothoversomeof themostawkward

passagesintheletter.

71Appendix6a.

72Appendix6b.

73Ibid.

954




Most of theseelementswere madeof wood. Insideexisting

wallsandunder

existingroofs,then,the Tronandthe Michielhadapparentlyerectedstruc-

turesof wood that includedtheboxes,andby implicationthe corridorsthat

gaveentranceto them,aswell asthestagesand thescenery.Allof it could be

removedwithoutrazingthe buildingsin whichthe theatershad been con-

structed.If the Michiel and theTronhad constructedscenery,thatscenerymust havebeen usedin preferenceto the scenerythe actingtroupesof the

Gelosiand Confidentiwouldnormallyhavebroughtwith them.

Wemay

neverknow moreaboutthephysicalaspects

of thesetheaters,unlessdrawingsor moredetaileddescriptionscome to light.The remarkable

tale of theirshortlives and of theirruthlessdestructionby orderof the Ten

givessome credenceto Antonio Persio'saccountin his manuscriptof 1607

of one theaterthat held most of thenoblesof Venicein its boxes- atheater

inwhichthose noblesand theirwivesanddaughtersheardthe most scandal-

ouslanguage,anda theaterthat theJesuitssucceededin havingdismantled,to the greatloss of he who had built it. The publicationdates of Persio's

booksinVenice,1576and1593,turnoutto be uselessfor

dating

the theater

aboutwhich he wrote. He wasin Veniceor neighboringPaduafrom1572

until sometimeafter1589, when he moved to Rome.74He mayhavere-

turnedto Venicein 1593 for the publicationof his book. Presumablyhe

continuedto enjoythe patronageandprotectionof the branchof the Con-

tarinifamilythat includedZaccariaContarini,whom he mentionsin his

book of 1575.75Zaccariawas a capoof the Ten when the theaterswere or-

dereddismantled,76and so Persiocould evenhave had an accountof their

destructionfirst hand.His mistakein the numberof the theatersmaysug-

74Artese,2, 4.

75Persio,1576, 119, "... il Clariss.Sign.ZacheriaContarinivostrofratelcugino mag-

giore,il qualeinsiemecon voi altrifratelli,& cuginiviventinell'istessopalagio."Here he is

addressingPieroContarini,to whomhe dedicatedthe book.The Contarinihadparticularlycloseties to theJesuits.Kolvenbach,49-50, notes the relationshipthat St. Ignatiushimself

hadwith an earlierPieroContarini,the uncleof Persio'sdedicatee,duringIgnatius'second

Venetiansojourn,beginningat theendof 1535. PadoanUrban,139, alsopointsto the close-

nessof the Contarinito the Jesuits.Persio,n. 13, refersto anothermemberof the family,"ReverendopadrePhilippo,"who was then activein the Jesuitorder.ForZacchariaCon-

tarini,see Benzoni.In MuseoCorrer,Mss. Cicogna2991, II, 27, one finds the following

entryaboutZacchariaContariniin old age:"Dopo35. anniin circa,che i VenetiPadricac-

ciata avevanocon solenne Decretogl'Istrioni,tentandosida alcuniGiovanidi ristabilirgli,ZaccariaContarini,ch'eraalloraProcuratordi S. Marco,fattosi portare,quantunquegrave-mente infermoin Senato,auditoquepro comicijsconsilio,clamanscaputexeruitepulvinari

ultimoquespirituidprestitit,ut UrbetotaiterumHistrionespellerentur.I/ FrancisicusMariade

Monaco.In Actoreset spectatorescomediarum."

76Appendix6b.

955




gest, however, that he received the news at some remove, perhaps when hewas in Venice in 1593 for the publication of his book. In 1607 he remem-

bered at least the general outlines of the story, and he recalled them in a

context that has not been sufficiently considered.

Persio'saccount of the destroyedVenetian theaterforms the largest partof one chapter out of thirty written in support of Paul V at the time that

pope held the city under interdict in 1606-07. Persioactuallydedicated the

manuscript to "Simon Peter, head of the Apostles and of the Roman

Church,and to

his worthy successors."77The first twenty three chapters ofthe manuscript consist of a relatively brief debunking of the Venetian ver-

sion of the history of the city, followed by a lengthy account of all the

transgressionsof Venice against the church. In chapters 24 and 25 he cites

the Venetians for two particularsins (presumablyout of seven): avarice and

luxuria. It is in the context of the latter (he says that Venetians should be

called "veneriani"ratherthan "venetiani")that the description of the theater

is profferedas a particularlyheinous example of Venetian luxuria. He inter-

ruptshis account of the theater to

digresson the

plungingnecklines of

Venetian noblewoman, another example of Venetian indulgence in the plea-sures of the flesh. In the context of these examples of luxurious behavior

remarkably,he apparentlyfound nothing worse to cite - he points out the

ways in which Jesuitshave come to the aid of the sinful "veneriani,"either by

having the theaterdestroyedor the breastscovered.78

Why the city fatherswould have been so peculiarly susceptible to the

Jesuits'protestations is a question worth considering, especially in the con-

text of the veryparticularrelationship

Venetians believedthey

had with the

Divine. Forcenturies the political leadersof the city, especially the members

of the Council of Ten, felt that they had a particularduty to keep behavior

in the city at a moral level high enough to avoid God's displeasure. Theylived in constant fearthat He, if provoked, might hurl his wrath on the city,and even treat it like Sodom or Gomorrah - thus the particularly harsh

punishments the Ten handed out for sodomy.79In the heightened religiosityof the Counter Reformation, the Jesuits found it easy to convince men like

Zaccaria Contarini that both the acts that took place in the boxes and the

lascivious activity on stage could be enough to provoke divine displeasure.

77Persio,1607, "Consagratoa Simon Pietro capo degli Apostoli et della Chiesa Cattolica

Romana, et a' suoi degni successori."

78Appendix11.

79Ruggiero, 109-45, discusses the treatment of sodomy in the Trecento and Quattro-

cento; my readings in the ricordi of the Ten from the Cinquecento suggest that similar

treatment was handed out then.

956




TheJesuitsandtheir

agingallieson the Councilof Tenwon the battle

of thecomedytheaters,butonlyforthe next fewdecades,80until theJesuitswere banishedfromVenetianterritoryin 1607 aspartof the settlementof

the interdictcrisiswith PaulV. Eventhatvictory,howeverimpermanent,was not complete. It hasgenerallybeen held that no comedieswereper-formedin Venicebetweenthe early1580sand 1607. LikemostcategoricalstatementsaboutVenetianhistory,this one- firstputforthbyahardlyim-

partialseventeenth-centuryJesuit8 - has to be qualified. During the

carnivalof 1591 the Ten ordereda halt to the comediesthat werebeingper-formedforprofiton Muranoandsent the comedianspacking.82Clearlyno

one had asked the Ten for permissionfor theseperformances;Venetians

knewthatanysuchrequestwouldbe turneddown.One wondershowmanyotherbootlegcomediesmayhaveescapedtheTen'sattentionin theseyears,or howmany performancesmayevenhavebeendeliberatelyoverlooked.

The Michiel never becametheaterimpresariosagain.Trondescen-

dants,however,reconstructedtheir theateraftertheJesuitswereexpelledfromVenicein 1607,andin it comedieswereonceagainperformed.In this

theater,theTeatroSanCassiano,rebuiltseveraltimes on the samesite, the

firstpublic performanceof an operafor a payingpublic,anywhere,took

placeduringthe carnivalof 1636, fifty-oneyearsafterthedemolitionof the

Tron'spioneeringcomedytheater.83It is from this descendentof the six-

teenthcenturyVenetiancomedytheatersthat theItalianoperahousein turn

develops.84

WILLIAMS COLLEGE

80Cozzi,1994, 65, notes that theyhad managedto have a comedy performancecan-

celledandthe scenerydestroyedasearlyas 1559.8 Ottonelli, 117.

82Appendix10.

83SeeMangini,1974, 33-42, andMancini, Muraro,Povoledo,97-149, for the subse-

quent historyof this theaterandRosand,67-75, for anaccountof the operaitself.Althoughthe libretto of the opera,Andromeda,waspublishedin May 1637, the performanceswere

givenin the precedingFebruary(Ibid.,70), thusin 1636accordingto the Venetiancalendar.

84Thispartof thestorywill be developedin publicationsnowbeing prepared.

957




Appendix la, 2 January 1575in Add.ne

Dovendosicon ogni debitareverentia,et devotionepigliareil santissimogiubileo,concessaa

questacittadall'infinitamisericordiadel S.r Dio col mezodel summoPontifice,secondocheal primodi questomese e statopublicato,e ben convenienteremovertutti quelli impedi-menti chepossonofarmancodevotoil populodi questacitta.

L'anderaparte,che per il tempoche durail sant.mogiubileosianoprohibitele comedie,li

balli,et maschere,cosi in questacitta,come nellecontrade,eccettoper6per quindecigiorniultimi del carnevale,cioe dallixx. di Febraro,fino il primogiornodi quadragiesima,sotto

penade 18. mesidi galea,overode annicinquede bandodi questacittaa cadaunoche fosseanditode contrafaralpresenteordine,secondochemegliopareraallicapidi questocons.o a

qualisiacommesa1'essecutionedellapresenteparte,da esserpublicatasoprale scallede S.

Marco,et de Rialtoet altrove,overpareraallicapi p.ti.De parte 25

De non 0

Non sinc. 2

ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, Comune,R. 32, 1575-76, 87r.

Appendix b, 17 February 1575

InAdd.ne

Fb prudentemente,et con sommapieta, et religioneprovistoalli 2. del mese passatoper

questocons.o cheperil tempo,che durerail santissimogiubileonon si possanofarmascare,recitarcomedie,et tenirballi,eccettocheperxv.giorniultimidelcarnevale,cioedallxx. del

presentefino il p.mo giornodellaquadragesima,et perchesi vede continuarin questacitta

in tutte le qualitade personeunagrandissmadevotioneet un concorsograndea questosan-

tissimogiubileo,non essendobeneinterromperlo,ne ancoperil sop.totempo.L'anderaparte,che alaude,et gloriadelSig.rDio, salutedelle animeet satifattionedi questacittala prohibitionesop.tade non si farmascare,tenirballi,ne recitarcomediedebbacon-

tinuarancopertutto il mesepresentedi febrarocon tuttele penecontenutenellapartep.tadelli2 del mesepassato,et siapublicataet d.

De parte 21

De non 5

Non sinc. 1


958




Appendix 2a, 22 December 1580in cons.odiX.

che sia datalicentiaper questavoltaa quelliche recitanocomedie,che passatele tre feste

prossimedi Natale, possonno per tutto il carnevalche seguita,solamenterecitarle loro

comediein questacitta con espressaconditione,che sianofiniteallequatrohoradi notteal

piu,dovendoanco esserrecitatecon modestia,et honesta.Ne vi possaesserdataprincipio,se

primanon si haverarelationecon giuram.toda proti,et peritili qualidallecapide questocons.o siano mandatia vederdiligentessimamentei luoghi, ove si doverannorecitare,che

siano forte et sicuriin modo,che non vi possasuccederalcunaruina.

9 95 6 pendet2/3

1 0

ASV,Consigliode'X, PartiComuni, Filze,B. 143, dec.-feb.1580.

Appendix 2b, 29 December 1580

in cons.o di X.

Che sia data licentiaper questavoltaa quelli,che recitanocomedie,che possanorecitarlelorocomediein questaCitti pertutto il prossimocarnevalsolamenteprincipiandoil primo

giornodi Gennaroprossimoventuro.Con espressaconditione,che sianofiniteallequattrohoredi notte alpiu, dovendoancoesserrecitatecon modestia,et honesta.

11

4 2/3 (linedrawnthrough11 notesthatpartepassed.)1

ASV,Consigliode'X, R. 35, 1580-81, 118v.

Appendix 3

25 September1581

in cons.o di X.

Sono statisemprestudiosissimili maggiorinostri,huominisapientissimi,et religiossimi,di

levartutte le occasioni,et incentivi,che possonocorromperli boni costumidellagioventu,et per6del 1508. a 29. di Decembreprohibiterocon questocons.o il recitardi comedie,

egloge,et cose simili,perchein esse venivanofattiatti, et detteparolelascive,et inhoneste.

Questaprohibitionepermolto tempoe stataosservatacon grandissimalaude dellaRepub-licanostra,ma da alcunianni in qui si e introdotto,che perquestocons.o con li 2/3. delle

ballotevien data licentiadi recitarcomedie,allequaliconcorronohuomini,et donne, gio-vani, et vecchi;onde perla commodita,che hanno li tristi di suvertirl'incautaett de' gio-vani, ne seguenoinfiniti inconvenienticontral'honordel sig.rDio, la salutedell'anime,et

con qualchenotadelpub.cogoverno,vedendosi,che in questacittanon solamenteviendato

ordinarioricettoallicomedianti,ma che li sia statofabricatopiu d'un loco perrecitarle loro

inhonestissimecomedie:al che dovendosiprovederI gloriadi sua DivinaMaestaet peruni-versalbeneficiodell'anime,et delcorpodi tuttili habitantiin questaCitta,

959




L'anderaparte,

che la licentia del recitar[here'simil'inserted]comedie,[here'o' inserted]

egloge,6 cosesimile [thislastthreewordphrasescratchedout andthe words'intendendosi

perbdi quelle,che sono recitateda personemercenarie'insertedin the margin]non possaesserconcessa,se non per partepostadal Ser.moPrincipe,dallisei consiglieri,et dalli tre

capi,et presacon li 5/6. delle ballotedi questecons.ocongregatoalperfettonumerodi 17.

et che avantiil mandardellapartesia sempreletta la presentedeliberatione.Et se alcuno

andiracontrail presenteordinerecitarin loco publico,6 privato['simil'addedin margin]comedia,['o'inserted]egloga,['odaltracosa simile'scratchedout] caschia penadi vogarin

galeadi condemnatimesi disdottocon i ferriallipiede,et non essendobon dagalea,di star

annitrein pregionserrada,et di pagarducativinticinquea chi l'haveriritenuto,et presen-

tato nelleforze:ne il tempodellagalea,6 pregionle habbiacominciar,se non dopopagatilisop.ti danari.Et la presentepartenon possaper qualsivogliacausaessersuspesa,alterada,

interpretada,revocada,6 decchiarida,se non con parteposta, et presacon tutti li ordini

soprascritti.10

3(linethorugh10 showsthat it passed)2

ASV, Consiglio dei Dieci, Particomuni, Filze,B. 147, sept.-nov.1581

Appendix 4a, 8 February 1584

in C.X.

Havendointesoquesto Consigliodallascritturahora letta come li Comedigelosiricercano

licentia di poter rappresentarper tratenimentodella citti soggettipastorali,et tragiciet

comediehonestissimenon si deve mancardi esaudirlicon tale honesteconditioni,per6L'anderaparte,che siaperquestirestantigiornidel CarnovaleconcessalicentiaallipredettiComici di poterrecitarle comediecon ognimodestia,et honestacom'epredetto.et che esse

sianofinite alle tre'[quattr'scratchedout] horedi nottealpiu, dovendoessertenutiapertili

palchidi giorno,et di notte,etpostili cesendelipertuttili andediinnanziil recitar,et tenutiaccesi fino al fine, si che tutti siano partitidal luogo dove si recitarano.Et non facendo

quantoe prescrittolalicentiasianulla,et di niun valore.

6 7

7 6 2/3 pendetalpresente1 1

Nota come furonolette tutte le soprascrittepartenotatein margineche sonoin materiadelle

comedie,Rosso.c. 55v.,L.o79 c. 184, L.o83 c. 9 r & v,c. 178v.,c. 181.

ASV,Consigliodei Dieci, PartiComuni, Filze,B. 158, novembrea febbraio1584.

960




Appendix 4b

Insidethe abovesheet is the followingletterfromthe Gelosi,foldedin half:

Ill.mi et Ecc.miSS.ri

IIrispetto,et la riverenza,che la compagniadi noi ComiciGelosiha sempredebitamente

havutoa questoSer.moet feliciss.odominio, ha fatto, che mai habbiamopresoardiredi

recitarcomedie in questasua felicissimacitti, se non habbiamohavutoparticolarlicentia

dalleVV. SS. Ecc.me con tutto che habbiamovedutoaltrecompagnieprendersilicenzada

loro stesse,et recitarcome al presentesi fa da diversiin diversiluoghi della citta;il che

vedendonoi devotissimi,et ubedientissimisuoi servitorihabbiamopresoardirdi comparercon questadinantile VV.SS. Ill.meper supplicarlecon quellamaggiorriverenza,et humilta

che si puo, che sieno contenteconcedercilicenzaper questi pochi giorniche restanodel

Carnevale,promettendodi fuggirtuttequellecose,che possonodarpurminimosuspettodi

dishonestaa qualsivogliapia, et bencreatapersonarappresentandosolamentesoggettipas-torali,tragici,et di qualchecomediahonestissima.procuraremoche li palchirestinoin ogni

tempo appertidinanti si che mai si possa nascondercon scandaloalcuna persona,et

procuraremodi trattenerquestasuacittacon quellahonestaet con quelliesempijde buoni

costumicheconoscemoconveniread'unacittt virtuosaet religiosacomee questa,perla esal-

tationedellaqualenon cessaremomaidi pregarDio NostroSig.reet con cio allabuonagra-

tiadelleVV. SS. Ill.mehumilmentesi raccommandamo.

Appendix 5a, 11 February 1584

Che la letteradi Rettorinostri di Vicenzadi vij del mesepresente,indricciataalli capi di

questoCons.o horaletta,in materiadellaRappresentationdellaTragedia,c'ha da esserfatta

in quellacitti, sia mandataallisavijdelCollegionostro,perchesopradi essahabbianoquellaconsideratione,cheli parera.

ii

1

0


961




Appendix 5b, 21 February 1584in Pregadi

Risposta:AlliRettoridiVicenza

Veduteda noi le vostreletterescritteai capidel cons.o nostrodi .X. in propositodel spetta-colo dellaTragedia,che hadaesserrappresentataquestocarnevalein quellaCitta,vi dicemo

col senato, che parendocipoter bastarel'auttoritache havete per [the followingwords

scratchedout:'farpassarle cose con quiete,vogliamotenerperfermo,chemediantelavostra

prudentiaet diligenza']provederea tutto quelloche saranecessarioin simileoccasione,et

conoscendovinoi insieme prudenti, et diligenti, vogliamo tener per fermo, che non

mancheretepuntodi fardavoi medesimi,che le cose di talspettacolo[wordscratchedout topoint that it is unreadable]passinocon quellaquiete,et satisfattioneuniversale,che si convi-

ene.

107

271[etta].c[on]. 19. Feb.84.

23

ASV,Senato1, Filze93

Appendix 5cFoldedinsidethe abovesheetis theletterfromthe Rettoriof Vicenza:

All'Ill:miet Ecc:miSS.riColl.mili SS.riCappidell'Ecc.soCons.o di .X.

Ill.mi& Ecc.miSS.ricoll.mi

LAccademiaOlimpica,la qualee unacompagniainstituitagiada molt'anniin questaCitta

di buonnumerodi Gentilhuomini,et d'altrepersonedi qualitaancoforastiere,havendofab-

ricatoun Nobilissimo;et molto sontuosoTheatro,et continuandotuttavianell'ordinaresue

virtuosiesercitationi,deliber6fino a tempode Cl.mi nostri Precessoridi rappresentarenel

prossimoCarnovaleL'EdippoTragediaAntica,ma traddottain linguaItalianadal Cl.mo

S.orOrsatoGiustiniano.Etapprossimandosiil tempodi metterein operaquantocon moltaSpesahannodissegnatodi fare,habbiamogiudicatodebitonostrodi darneconto riverente-

mente,comefacciamo,alle VV.SS. Ecc.me,le qualisianocontente,quandocosipiacciaal

loroprudentissimogiuditio,di coagiunarcon la somma authoritalorol'ottimavolonta,che

noi habbiamodi procurareper ognivia,chequestoSpetaculohonoratissimopassicon quella

quieteche si conviene,et con quellasodisfatione,che universalmentes'aspetta,dovendoper

quellos'intende,concorrerviassaibuon numero de forastieri,et se ben noi per tal effetto

attenderemocon ogni studio,et diligentiaa faropportunamentequelleprovisioni,ch'andi-

amotuttaviafra noi medesimidissegnandodi doverfare,nondimeno,quandoall'ordinaria

nostra authoritas'aggiongesseanco quelladi piu, che paresseall'Ecc.VV. di conciederne,

crediamoin caso talepotersiraggionevolmentesperaretuttoquelbuonfine,chesi desidera,rendedosipiu facileet l'impedire,et il reprimerecon essaogn'unode quegl'accidenti,che in

simili occasionialcunavoltasoglionooccorrere,i, qualiperovolgiamocredere,chenon deb-

banosuccedere;rimettendoil tutto al prudentissimogiuditio,dell'Ecc:VV. prontissimiad

eseguirequantodaloro ne saracomandato:Gratiae.

Da Vicenzaallivij:febraro1585. [InVicenzatheVenetianmodeof datingwas not used.]LiRettori

on verso:84 .7. febraroVicenzaRettori

ASV,Senato1, Filze93.

962




Appendix 6a, 14 January 1585Che sia concessolicentiaalli Nobili homenifiglichefuronodelq. nob. hom. s.AndreaTron

si come hanno supplicato,che possanonel luogo da loro fabricatofar recitarcomediepertuttoquestoCarnovalein questacitta,con conditioneespressa,che essecomediesiano finite

allequattr'horedi notte alpiu,dovendoanco esserrecitatecon ognimodestiaet honesta.Ne

possonoprincipalmenteesserrecitateessecomedie,se non serl con veritariferitoallicapidi

questocons.o che sianostatitutti li palchidel luogoapertidallapartedadriedo,et traversati

con cantinellein modo,checiascunochepasserapossivederperdentrodi essipalchi;et cosi

debannostarapertiper tutto detto carneval,et li cesendelisianoposti per tutti li Andedi

inanziil recitardellecomedie,et tenutiaccesifino al finedi esse,et fin, chetutti sianopartitidalluogodovesi recitano.Etnon facendosiquantoe predettorestinoli predetiNobili nostri

prividellapredettalicentiadi poterfarrecitarle comedie:et li Comedianticastigati,segondola formadellepartiin ci6 disponenti.

3

ii presode non 2/3

2

(in margin)Capieccettos ZaccariaContarini

Rubeusc 55v,Lii- c 115 (sic.actuallyc 155), 82 c116, c118v,83 c9v,c178v,c180v,

c181

ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, Comune,Registro38, 1585-86, 81v.

Appendix 6b

(Followsimmediatelyon the samepage]Adisoprascripto(14 January1585)Cheperli capidi questoConsigliosiafattointenderalliNobilihuominisAlviseTron,et fil-

giolifur de s.Andreaoveroa suoicommissarij,et intervenienti,et alliNobili Homeni Alvise

Michielet fratellifur de s. PieroAntonio che in terminede giornixv.debbonohaverfattodisfarein tutto, et pertuttoli palchi,scene,et alrecose mobilidalliluoghifattifabricarda

essiperrecitarComedie,si che nonvi restipurvestigiealcunaperil dettoeffetto.Altrimenti

passatiessi giorniquindeci,non havendoli predettiNobili homeni obedito, et esseguito

quantoe predettosiaperli sopscriptiCapimandatodi subitoa farlevar,et disfardallipre-dettiluoghitutti li palchi,solariscene,et ognialtracosapertinenteal recitardi Comedie:Et

li legnami,et altra[82r.]cosapertinenteal recitardi comedie.Et li legnami,et altramateria

sia dispensataad piascausas,et a quelli,che haveranolavoratosecondo,che pareraad essi

capidi questoconsiglio.ii

22

(in margin)Capi.s ZaccariaContarini,s Zuan MatthiaPisani,s HieronimoSurian

A 15. dettofu riterrataet lettala presentepartealliNobili homeni s Hettor Tron et s Piero

Michiel.

ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, Comune,Registro38, 1585-86, 81v.

n.b. In the roughdraftof this documentthewords"allinobili"areinsertedbefore"SAlvise

Tron"and the words"altrecose" aresubstitutedfor "altriluoghi."ASV,Consigliode' X,PartiComuni,Filze 161 1585, nov-feb.

963




Appendix 6c

Insidea foldedsheetwiththe roughdraftof 6a is anothersheet,undated,in anotherhand.

Sereniss.oPrincipePad.iet Sig.iEcc.mi

Se la grandezza,delle molte, et infinite, miserie,di cosl numerosafamiglia,di noi Alvise

Tron,fratelli,et sorellefb del'Il.mom Andrea,in recognitionedellimoltimeriti,del' misero

Padre,et infelicibarbari[cruel],nostri,nell'ardentissimapassataGuerra;perla schiavith,perel spargimeto,del'sangue,dellarobba,et vite, l'oro,a, servitiodi questoSereniss.oDominio;

pub,mai,sperar',in qual'sivogliatempo,6, meritargratia,dallasolitaBenignita,diV. Ser.taet delleV. S. Ecc.e.Hora, ricerca,la necessita,et l'occasione.Poicheevidentementesiamo,

percascare,et miseramentedessolare,l'infeliciss.acasanostra;la quale,con felicestella,pot-ria,un giorno;con el' chiaro,et frescoessempio;che nostriprogienitori,con moltafede,et

devotionespenderallegramentetutte le sforzenostre,et la vita, insieme, a, commodo,et

beneficio,di questaPatria;pensb,il povero,et dissaventuratoPadre;persicurezza,del' nos-

trograviss.obisognio;fabricarun'luoco, da recitarcommedie,impegando,in quello,quelpoco, di cavedal'[capital],ch' egli havea;ne sparagni6[risparmib],maggiormentedi obli-

garsi,a, moltidebiti;con acrescimento,di maggiorspesa,dalliel.miProv.idi Commun',di

ondi, del'suoEcc.moColegio;che ogni cosa,a, nostromal'grado,soprale spallenostre;e,

stataaddossata;et speravaegli, da essaFabrica,con publicoinstrumentofatto, con alcuniCommici, con' sodisfation'della Ser.taV. et delle V. S. Ecc.e ritrar'giusto, et honesto

guadagnio;masia, 6, che li accidentide tempi, passati,il cattivoconcetto,6, perdirmeglio,la nostraadversafortuna;che, havendosi,continuamenteli precedentianni, permesso,il

recitarcommedie,nelli fabricati,Teatri,di altri;a, noi miseri,et infelici,subbitofossepro-hibito, senzarestoro,6, suffragioalcuno:che troppoinfelice,et misera;e, stata,la sorte,et

condittionnostra;et havendo,procurato,li nostri,d'intender,la causa,di questaprohibi-tione sonno, stati,avertiti;che li Palchiserrati,et l'opinione,che a l'hora,le commedie,si

rapresentassero,co'parole,licentiose,et poco honeste,hannocausato,tantodissordine;alle

qual'cose,si hafermamentedeliberato,de Proved.ret con

ogni diligentia,invigilar;primam-ente si aprirano,li palchi,et resteranocontinuamenteapertissimi,et si osserverainviolabil-

mentecheli Commici,che rapresenterannoCommedie,Egloghe,Tragedie,Pastorali,et cose

simili,nellinostriluochi,le faranno,con tantamodestia,honesta,et prudentia;senzascan-

dalo,ne mormoratione,alcuna;et con dolce,grato,et desiderato,trattenimento,di tuttala

citta. Etsealtro,parera,allaSer.taV. et alleV.S. Ecc.edi ordinare,regolare,et riformare,sia

in qual'sivogliamodo, 6, forma;si offerimo,humilmentedi abbraciare,osservare,et pronta-mente obedire;Et se, in tutte, le parti,di Christianiti,in Roma,et Bolognia;con buona

licenza,di SuaSantita,si reccitanoCommedie,si come pienamentela Ser.ti V. et le V. S.

Ecc.e si possonogiustificare,perchea, noi miseri,et infelici;a, tantasolevationnostranon

seraconcesso;ProstratiadunqueallePiedi,dellaSer.tiV. et delleV. S. Ecc.econ ogni som-missione,et riverentementepregamo,et supplicamo,si degninofavorire,che li nostriCom-

mici, possinorecitarCommedie,nel'nostroluogho, per quelligiorni,di carnevale,che alla

molta sua prudenza,pareriaconvenienti.Che di tale, e, tanto beneficio;porgieremo,del

continuo,affetuosissimiprieghi,al nostroSig.rDio, per l'augumento,et felicit, di questaEcc.maRep.et perlaconservation,dellaSer.tiVG. et delleV.S. Ecc.e.

ASV,Consigliode'Dieci, PartiComuni,Filze161, 1585, nov-feb.

964




Appendix 7

8 march1591

Intendosi,che nella terranostradi Muranosi e introdottoda alcunigiorniin quail recitar

comedieperguadagno,il che essendocon pericolodi qualchescandolo,et contrali buoni

costumi,et la formadellelegginostrein dettoproposito,e convenienteprovedere,che non

continuino,perbL'anderaparte,che fatto veniredimane mattinail Podestadi quellaTerraal Tribunaldi li

Capi di questoCons.o gli sia in nome di esso fatto intendere,che non permettia modo

alcuno,che si continuia recitarcomediein essaTerra,et che licentijimmediateli comedi-

anti, che le recitano,intimandogli,che obediscano,sotto le pene statuitedallelegginostre

contraquelli,che le recitavanoin questaCitta.

16

0

ASV,Consigliode'X, Comune,Registro41, 1590-91, 161v.

Appendix 8

CapitoloXXV

"Della Lusuriade Venetianje de Beneficijfattjda GiesuitiallaRep.cae come piu tosto si

devono direVenerianiche Ven.ni,e s'accennadj nuovoal regressodelle sudettecause a glieffetti."

. . . Al tempoch'ioquivjdimoravov'eranointrodottele Comediein modo,che peresse era

stato fato un'edificiodj gran spesa aguisad'un anfiteatroove si riducevaquasi tutta la

nobilta,etv'eranonobilichepregavanoli Comedianjchedicceserole piu grassepernon dire

piu sporchecose che mai

sapessero,et essici menavano

pojle

mogliet le

figliuolealla

qualecorruttelacon bell.moarteficioli Giesuitis'opposero,et la sradicavanoa fatto;onde se maj

peraltro,certoperquest'operasono degnidi laude,et gloriaappressoi buonj,sicome anco

perquell'altrache molti annjsono tornandodal Concilio di Trentoil PadreaAlfonsoAlm-

eroneGiesuitae fermatosiin Ven.ai predicarevedendole nobileVen.neandarcon le spallee con il peto ignudesinoall'ombelicomostranle mamelleet in cambiodi quellsottilissimo

velocheportavanosopralacarneordinbche si facesseroun giupponescollato,che dal nome

del Predicatoresudettoet e ancoranominatol'almerone.I Giesuitidunqueperoviarei qual

vituperosomododjrecitarcomediesi lascivamentee con si granconcorsodi tuttalacitti ma

pii de Nobili miseroin cosiderationea'quejsenatorj,che in quelluogocosi fabricatoe pieno

di tantagente, e massimede nobili, i qualiper loro havevanoaffittatiquasitutti i palchifacilmentead' alcunipotevavenirein mente con qualchemachinadj farabbruggiarequeledificioet estinguerebuonapartedi quellaNobilta,indi fattesimoltee molterenghein sen-ato sopra dj cib, e conosciutol'evidentepericoloin che la Citta si trovava,prohibironoI

fatto il recitarle comedie,e fece disfarequellafabrica,ch'erastatafattaI quel effettocon

grandannodjchi I'havevafattafare....

Persio,1607, 38r & v.

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