Giovan Battista Cini (1525 – c. 1586) was an

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

playwright at the court of the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Muge ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

History

Cini was a member of The Florentine Academy of Art which was founded by Grand Duke

Cosimo I Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Life Rise to power Cosimo was born in Florence on 12 ...

at the height of the

power during the 16th century. Cini's contemporaries there were his fellow authors Amberi,

Lasca Lasca (also called Laska or Laskers) is a draughts (or checkers) variant, invented by the second World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker (1868–1941). Lasca is derived from English draughts (American checkers) and the Russian draughts game bashni (T ...

(author of the renowned '' Story of Dr Manente''), Cecchi and Gelli. They studied the intellectual philosophies from

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the gen ...

and

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...

Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's ''Orlando Innamorato'', describes the ...

and Machiavelli.

Theater work

At the time Florence led Europe as a theatrical center. By the 15th century the city was renowned for its ''"sacre rappresentazioni"'': these were religious dramas incorporating stage machinery. However what was an important step to what was to become modern theater was the Florentine love of staging classical comedies, unlike the rest of intellectual Europe which merely read them. The first instance of a Florentine classical production was as early as 1476 when Terence's ''

Andria Andria (; Barese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in Apulia ( southern Italy). It is an agricultural and service center, producing wine, olives and almonds. It is the fourth-largest municipality in the Apulia region (behind Bari, Taranto, and Fogg ...

'' was performed translated into Latin so that it could be clearly understood by a wider audience. The next step came in the late 16th century came when musical interludes were incorporated into the text and spoken dialogue—this was the birth of modern opera. One of these early "operas" was Cini's principal work which drew on the fables of

Cupid and Psyche Cupid and Psyche is a story originally from ''Metamorphoses'' (also called ''The Golden Ass''), written in the 2nd century AD by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (or Platonicus). The tale concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyc ...

. This work, which Cini dedicated "to the future of Grand Duchy of Florence"' was performed accompanied by music composed by

Alessandro Striggio Alessandro Striggio (c. 1536/1537 – 29 February 1592) was an Italian composer, instrumentalist and diplomat of the Renaissance. He composed numerous madrigals as well as dramatic music, and by combining the two, became the inventor of madrigal co ...

. Striggio (1535–1589) was the principal composer to the Florentine Medici court. Another of his works, '' La Vedova'' ("The Widow"), received a famous theatrical set designed by the Medici's architect

Baldassarre Lanci Baldassarre Lanci (1510–1571) was an Italian architect, inventor, theatrical set designer, and master of perspective of the Renaissance period. Born in Urbino, he spent most of his working life in Tuscany. Early career He began his career as mi ...

– complete with mechanical revolving scenery. Lanci actually changed the location of the play in order to include more scene changes than Cini had written.

Performances

These elaborate and complicated performances were generally staged to honor weddings and baptisms of the Medici family, or to greet the arrival of foreign princes and potentates in Florence. During Cini's time, performances were generally held in the courtyard of a

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

where often grandstands would be erected. The courtyard would be tented by cloth on which was painted a sky. The

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

(which the Medici had purchased from

Luca Pitti Luca Pitti (1398–1472) was a Florentine banker during the period of the republic presided over by Cosimo de' Medici. He was awarded a knighthood, and received lavish presents from both the Signory of Firenze and the Medici family as a reward ...

in 1549) had an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

constructed in its

Boboli Gardens The Boboli Gardens ( it, Giardino di Boboli) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, ...

for such performances. At one performance it was recorded that seventy candelabra bearing

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...

were suspended from the "sky" providing light, while the performers entered the theatrical arena on ornamental floats against a background showing Venice. Venice and the Sahara were a popular locations for Florentine plays, and in choosing these locations Cini was no exception.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cini, Giovan Battista Italian dramatists and playwrights 1525 births 1580s deaths House of Medici Writers from Florence 16th-century Italian writers 16th-century male writers