venetian literature and publishing 627
figures such as Pantalone, rooted in a character that appears in several
ruzante plays and turned into a full type by Calmo, would become one of
the most popular characters of the Commedia dell’arte.
the increasing ability to make a living through staging plays and other
forms of spectacle and in publishing plays moved theatrical work toward
the kind of professionalization that was also the direction being taken by
writing in general. an early sign was the proliferation of autori or spec-
tacle organizers in the third decade of the century. these were men who
took care of both the material features of the production, such as the
construction of temporary stages, and its content, often choosing or even
writing material; some even performed in the spectacle. because perfor-
mances were largely limited to the season of Carnival, the organizers had
to have other work, and may were artisans or intermediaries in a variety
of business or governmental functions. typifying this development was
giovanni (Zuan) Manenti, who organized Carnival spectacles for Com-
pagnie della Calza including the 1525 one, ran Venice’s first state lotteries,
and published a book of exchange tables.
another feature that has been missed by many scholars is that, even
very early in the century, some spectacles were paid for by the attendees,
and that the price could be low enough to accommodate the working
class.11 the trend would increase over the course of the century, as would
professionalization. by 1545, fixed acting troupes had developed, attested
by the first known contract in Padua, which also demonstrates the sea-
sonal nature of their work. it does not seem coincidental that the same
year saw the first author copyright law. the Venetian patriciate’s tolerance
of, or perhaps financial need for, spectacles supported by the working class
to add to its splendid state rituals and (usually) private Compagnia della
Calza festivities made the Serenissima a (partial) exception to the norm
developing in other italian states that theater served solely as a display of
magnificence with which the élite dazzled a subdued populace.
Promising directions for future scholarship include research into the
roles that patricians played in publishing and literature and their cultural,
economic, and political reasons for doing so, as well as the interrelations
between patricians and non-patricians in these spheres.
11 Patricia h. Labalme and Laura sanguineti White, eds., Venice, Cità Excelentissima:
Selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo, trans. Linda L. Carroll (baltimore,
2008), p. 492, n. 16.