Parution : Nerida Newbigin, « Making a Play for God: The Sacre Rappresentazioni of Renaissance Florence », 2021

Playful pleasure or devout piety? Why did Florentines invest so much effort in the performance of sacre rappresentazioni, their dramatizations of the life of Christ and the saints, the history of Man’s Salvation from the Creation to the Last Judgement, Old and New Testament stories, and miracles of the Virgin?

Drawing on manuscript and printed plays, confraternal and communal archives, chronicles and letters, this study explores in fine detail and with careful attention to chronology the performance groups and their motives, and the financing, staging, and reception of their plays. Woven into this exploration is an account of the transmission of the plays first in manuscript and later in print, with woodcuts that have guaranteed their survival to the present day.

Nerida Newbigin is an Emeritus Professor in Italian Studies at the University of Sydney. Since retirement, she has published, with Barbara Wisch, Acting on Faith: The Confraternity of the Gonfalone in Renaissance Rome (2013) and, with Kathleen Olive, a critical edition of the Codice Rustici (2015).

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Manuscript Evidence of Florentine Sacre Rappresentazioni
2. Plays in Churches
3. Youth Confraternities and Their Plays
4. Edifici for the Feast of St. John the Baptist
5. Playing Outdoors
6. Antonia Pulci, Antonio Miscomini, and the Transition to Print
7. Defying Anonymity: Belcari, Poliziano, Bellincioni, and Lorenzo de’ Medici
8. Bartolomeo de’ Libri, Antonio Miscomini, and the Illustrated Editions
9. Savonarola and Beyond: Castellano Castellani
10. The Afterlife of the Plays

Tables
1 Rappresentazioni and Frottole in Manuscript
2 Printed Rappresentazioni
3 Major Collectors and Sales

Appendix [of 30 selected documents]

Source