venetian literature and publishing 621
by the end of the Cambrai wars, Venice had regained much of its main-
land dominion. however, after a few years of truce, a new series of wars
lasting nearly a decade broke out between Francis i and Charles V, and
their allies, for dominion over the italian peninsula. those years also saw
the rapid spread of the reform movement and the related revolt of ger-
man peasants along the empire’s border with the Venetian state which,
combined with the wars, led to the infamous 1527 sack of rome. it is per-
haps no surprise that it was in this period that the other side of state
protection of publishing emerged, state censure, which was imposed for
the first time by the Council of ten in 1527, although, like the early bans
on theatrical productions, it at first had little effect. Printed texts and the
ability to read had now become so widespread that, when combined with
real-world forces, they held genuine political threat. by the decade’s con-
clusion, Charles, whom Venice had opposed as a member of the French-
allied League of Cognac, had assumed direct or indirect control of all the
italian states except Venice, putting an end to the republic’s ambitions.
through concerted Venetian effort, these wars were kept mostly out of
Venetian territory and therefore had less of a direct destructive effect,
though their severe financial drain and the defeat of the League caused
deep indirect loss and badly depleted the republic’s finances.
Conversely, the important role of culture in human coping with dis-
tress resulted in a flourishing in these decades of a wide array of literary
and theatrical genres contributing to a broad stream of published works.
While classical plays and relatively staid literary comedies continued to
be staged, more daring productions were also available. angelo beolco
(il ruzante) brought his peasant character to Venice at the invitation of
various patrician Compagnie della Calza and leading patrician families,
participating even in the quasi-state ceremony that heralded the entrance
of Federico ii gonzaga marquis of Mantua into the immortali (1520) and
the wedding in the ducal Palace of doge antonio grimani’s grandson
(1523).5 although the 1525 rehearsal of one of his peasant comedies drew
so many high-ranking patricians that the senate and Council of ten were
unable to meet, it was “totally lascivious and full of dirty words and reviled
5 the tuscan spelling “ruzzante” is used by some scholars either out of a general
preference for tuscanization or because the name was thus spelled on the author’s
petition to the Venetian government for the printing of two works. however, in the many
documents signed by the author preserved in the archivio di stato in Padua, he always
used a single “z” and the petition may have been drawn up by his patron alvise Cornaro,
possibly on the advice of the tuscan comic writer Francesco berni. see Linda L. Carroll,
“introduction,” in Carroll, ed. and trans., Angelo Beolco (Il Ruzante), La prima oratione
(London, 2009), pp. 34–35.