Földvári Books

A Milestone in the History of Theatre

Rossi, Bastiano de

[Descrizione dell'apparato e degli intermedi.] Descrizione dellapparato, e degl’intermedi. Fatti per la commedia rappresentata in Firenze. Nelle nozze de Serenissimi Don Ferdinando Medici, e Madama Cristina di Loreno, Gran Duchi di Toscana.

In Firenze: . Per Anton Padovani, M. D. LXXXIX [1589]. Large woodcut device on the title page. Woodcut initials and typographic tailpieces throughout. First edition. In later paper. Large margins. Light water stain, shelfmark in ink and a small tear with no effect to the text on the title page. As many copies, lacks the blank leaf, [𝜋]4. Sporadic foxing. Overall in very good condition.

A first-hand account of the Medici festival in 1589 celebrated the marriage of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Christina of Lorraine, a detailed description of the intermezzi, a milestone in the history of theatre.

The six intermezzi or dramatic interludes – described here in great detail by Bastiano de Rossi, the chief secretary of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence – inserted between the acts of Girolamo Bargagli’s La pellegrina, staged by Bernardo Buontalenti at the Uffizi Theater for the Medici wedding of May 1589, set a standard for stage design and machinery against which other operatic productions were later measured. “Based on classical mythology, each intermezzo of La pellegrina accompanied successive scene changes at the full view of the audience (by rotating prisms), major light and dramatic effects, impressive ascending and descending flights according to eyewitness accounts, as well as music composed by the Florentine Camarata” (Lyons, 2019).

Rossi’s festive book is the principal descriptive source of the féte. Its preface is dated 14 May 1589, at which time the wedding festivities were still in progress, hence the book was most likely composed while the scheduled wedding entertainments were still in rehearsal. This explains the fact that Rossi does not mention episodes of the wedding which are described by other sources, or reports about a certain stage effect that may not have been realized in performance, ie. the symbolism of the Roman amphitheatre (MacNeil, 1995).

Lyons, J. D.: The Oxford Handbook of the Baroque. Oxford University Press, 2019. p. 289; MacNeil, A. (1995). The Divine Madness of Isabella Andreini. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 120(2), 195–215. Retrieved February 24, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/766509

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Price: €3,000.00