Giambattista Andreini (9 February 1576 – 7 June 1654) was an Italian actor and the most important Italian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

of the 17th century.

Life

Born in

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 ...

to stage stars

Isabella Andreini Isabella Andreini (born Isabella Canali, 156210 June 1604), also known as Isabella Da Padova, was an Italian actress and writer. Andreini was a member of the Compagnia dei Comici Gelosi, a touring theatre company that performed in Italy and Fr ...

and

Francesco Andreini Francesco Andreini (c. 1548 – 1624) was an Italian actor mainly of commedia dell'arte plays. He began his career playing the role of the unsophisticated love-stricken young man. Later he played the role of Capitan Spavento ("Captain Fright ...

, he had a great success as a

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

in Paris under the name of Leylio. He was a favourite with

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

, and also with the public, especially as the young lover. His wife

Virginia Ramponi-Andreini Virginia Ramponi-Andreini, also known by her stage name "La Florinda" (1583 – c.1630) was a celebrated Italian actress and singer. She was known for her performances in ''commedia dell'arte'' plays, many of them written for her by her husband ...

, whom he married in 1601, was also a celebrated actress and singer.Snyder 2007, p. 37.

Works

He left a number of plays full of extravagant imagination. The best known are ''L'Adamo'' (Milan, 1613),'' The Penitent Magdalene'' (Mantua, 1617), and ''The Centaur'' (Paris, 1622). From the first of these three volumes, which are extremely rare, Italians have often asserted that Milton, travelling at that time in their country, took the idea of ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

''.

Lelio and Florinda by Minaggio tavola 106

Notes

Bibliography

* * Katritzky, M. A. (2006)
''The Art of Commedia: A Study in the Commedia Dell'Arte 1560-1620'', p. 245
Rodopi. * Snyder, Jon (2007). "Giovan Battista Andreini", vol. 1, pp. 36–38, in ''Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies'', edited by Gaetana Marrone. New York/London: Routledge. .

External links

* 1576 births 1654 deaths 17th-century Italian male actors 17th-century Italian writers 17th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights Italian male stage actors Italian dramatists and playwrights Actors from Florence Writers from Florence Commedia dell'arte Expatriates of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in France {{italy-stage-actor-stub