Five Comedies from the Italian Renaissance

At the turn of the sixteenth century, Italian playwrights rediscovered and recast an old art form -- the ancient Latin comedy -- to create witty, ribald, and intricately plotted plays that delighted Renaissance audiences with their clever reversals of gender and class roles. Five Comedies from the Italian Renaissance brings together the best of these works in lively new translations by Laura Giannetti and Guido Ruggiero, who also place the comedies in their cultural and social context. Presenting a fresh perspective on the Italian Renaissance, these deft translations allow modern readers to experience the original artistry and carnivalesque humor of these delightfully profane and irreverent literary classics.

Contents: The Comedy of Calandro by Bernardo Dovizi de Bibbiena; The Mandrake Root by NiccolAy Machiavelli; The Master of the Horse by Pietro Aretino; The Deceived by the Academy of the Intronati of Siena; and A Venetian Comedy (anonymous)

Laura Giannetti, formerly a professor of Italian literature and history at the Instituto Magistrale "Duca degli Abruzzi" in Treviso, teaches Italian language and literature at the University of Miami. Guido Ruggiero is chair of the department of history at the University of Miami. His books include The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crime, and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice and Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the End of the Renaissance.