This paper proposes a reflection on the influence exercised by oral mentality, which, still active in the XVth century before the divulgation of the press, had a large sway first on improvised compositions, and later on the recitation and written dramatic texts. In order to understand this mentality, it is indispensable to reconstruct the techniques of improvised recitation because these may throw light on the system of production of texts destined for oral communication, but which have reached us only through their written form. These techniques, therefore, and the oral mentality behind them, are retraced in the different recitative typologies - starting with the cantari, the novelle (tales), and the sacre rappresentazioni - and through these arrive at a new configuration of the genetic process of the vernacular comedy. In fact comedy has so far been considered as the product of humanistic studies on the classical theatre transposed in the context of the principal Italian courts of the early XVIth century. On the contrary it was the result of the fusion between the various pre-existing recitative traditions and humanistic culture: a phenomenon that, though in Florence it can be more readily noticed because of the absence of a court that could direct the cultural production uniquely towards the rediscovery of the classics, all the same, characterizes other Italian centers

Questo contributo propone una riflessione sull'influenza che la mentalità orale, ancor viva nel XV secolo prima dell'affermazione della stampa, esercitava sulla composizione estemporanea prima, e sulla scrittura poi, di testi recitativi e drammaturgici. Per avvicinarsi a questo tipo di mentalità è stato necessario ricostruire le tecniche della recitazione improvvisata perché fanno luce sui sistemi di produzione di testi destinati alla comunicazione orale che oggi noi conosciamo soltanto attraverso la loro forma scritta. Queste tecniche, e la mentalità orale che ad esse presiede, sono rintracciate in diverse tipologie recitative - dai cantari, alle novelle alle sacre rappresentazioni -, per giungere, tramite loro, ad una nuova configurazione del processo genetico della commedia in lingua. La commedia è stata infatti finora considerata come il prodotto degli studi umanistici sul teatro classico condotti nel contesto delle principali corti italiane del primo Cinquecento. Essa invece fu il risultato della fusione fra le varie tradizioni recitative preesistenti e la cultura umanistica: un fenomeno che, se a Firenze è più evidentemente percepibile per l'assenza di una corte che indirizzasse la produzione culturale univocamente verso la riscoperta dell'antico, caratterizzò tuttavia anche altri centri italiani.

Ventrone, P., Between acting and literacy: on the origins of vernacular Italian Comedy (updated version), <<JOURNAL DE LA RENAISSANCE>>, 2007; V (V): 371-382 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/108786]

Between acting and literacy: on the origins of vernacular Italian Comedy (updated version)

Ventrone, Paola
2007

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection on the influence exercised by oral mentality, which, still active in the XVth century before the divulgation of the press, had a large sway first on improvised compositions, and later on the recitation and written dramatic texts. In order to understand this mentality, it is indispensable to reconstruct the techniques of improvised recitation because these may throw light on the system of production of texts destined for oral communication, but which have reached us only through their written form. These techniques, therefore, and the oral mentality behind them, are retraced in the different recitative typologies - starting with the cantari, the novelle (tales), and the sacre rappresentazioni - and through these arrive at a new configuration of the genetic process of the vernacular comedy. In fact comedy has so far been considered as the product of humanistic studies on the classical theatre transposed in the context of the principal Italian courts of the early XVIth century. On the contrary it was the result of the fusion between the various pre-existing recitative traditions and humanistic culture: a phenomenon that, though in Florence it can be more readily noticed because of the absence of a court that could direct the cultural production uniquely towards the rediscovery of the classics, all the same, characterizes other Italian centers
2007
Inglese
Ventrone, P., Between acting and literacy: on the origins of vernacular Italian Comedy (updated version), <<JOURNAL DE LA RENAISSANCE>>, 2007; V (V): 371-382 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/108786]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10807/108786
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