Villa Commedia on Lake Como by Samuel Wale

Pliny's Comedy and Tragedy villas were two of the several villas owned by Pliny the Younger during the 1st century in the area surrounding Lake Como in northern Italy. In one of Pliny's letters to his boyhood friend Voconius Romanus (Book 9, Epistle 7), he named them as his favourites. In his letter, Pliny wrote that the Tragedy villa was atop a ridge above the lake, but the Comedy villa was right on the water's edge and that "each of them has particular beauties; a diversity which renders them to their master as still more agreeable."Orrery, John Boyle, 5th Earl of (1751)
''The letters of Pliny the Younger: with observations on each letter''
p. 245. Bettenham According to the letter, Pliny had derived the villas' names from their geographical positions and the conventions of Roman theatre. He saw the Tragedy villa as rising from its setting like an actor wearing the tragedian's high

platform boots Platform shoes are shoes, boots, or sandals with an obvious thick sole, usually in the range of . Platform shoes may also be high heels, in which case the heel is raised significantly higher than the ball of the foot. Extreme heights, of both ...

('), while the Comedy villa down by the lake wore the lowly comedian's

slipper Slippers are light footwear that are easy to put on and off and are intended to be worn indoors, particularly at home. They provide comfort and protection for the feet when walking indoors. History The recorded history of slippers can be traced ...

s ('). Both villas have long since vanished, and their exact locations remain a subject of speculation.Bagot, Richard (1912)
''The Italian Lakes''
pp. 107-108. A. & C. BlackDe la Ruffinière du Prey, Pierre (1994)
''The Villas of Pliny from Antiquity to Posterity''
pp. 5-8. University of Chicago Press. Although the Tragedy villa is widely assumed to have been located in Bellagio somewhere on the estate of the present-day Villa Serbelloni, no architectural remains have ever been found.Palaciá, Pilar and Rurali, Elisabetta (2009)
''Bellagio Center–Villa Serbelloni: A Brief History''
pp. 21–22; 68; 148. Rockefeller Foundation. Retrieved 26 November 2017. It is even less clear where the Comedy villa was situated. The 16th-century historian

Paolo Giovio Paolo Giovio (also spelled ''Paulo Jovio''; Latin: ''Paulus Jovius''; 19 April 1483 – 11 December 1552) was an Italian physician, historian, biographer, and prelate. Early life Little is known about Giovio's youth. He was a native of Com ...

thought that it was at

Lenno Lenno ( lmo, Lenn) was a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Como in the Italian region Lombardy, located about north of Milan and about northeast of Como. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,800 and an area of 9.6 km2 ...

facing the Tragedy villa but that its remains were now underwater. The Flemish geographer

Abraham Ortelius Abraham Ortelius (; also Ortels, Orthellius, Wortels; 4 or 14 April 152728 June 1598) was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer, conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the '' Theatrum Orbis Terra ...

, Giovio's younger contemporary, also wrote that Lenno was the site of the Comedy villa. However, in 1876, a Roman

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

floor and many Roman coins were found in Lierna, another small town on Lake Como. Many there now think that the mosaic floor may have been part of the Comedy villa. In the early 1900s the French geographer

Élisée Reclus Jacques Élisée Reclus (; 15 March 18304 July 1905) was a French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, ''La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes'' ("Universal Geography"), over a period of ...

had described Lierna as the site of a Pliny villa, although he did not specify which one.Goretti, Aurelio (2001). ''Lierna: un paese tra lago e monti''. Comune di Lierna
Extracts
retrieved from Lierna.net 25 November 2017 . In 1751 John Boyle, 5th Earl of Orrery, a close friend of

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

, published an English translation of Pliny's letters. The letter to Voconius Romanus describing the Comedy and Tragedy villas was illustrated with an imagined depiction of the Comedy villa by Samuel Wale. According to the architectural historian Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey, the villa in Wale's drawing bears a noticeable resemblance to Pope's villa on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. Pliny's own description of the Comedy villa mentioned that its terrace was gently curved like the bay on which it stood. He could fish directly from his bedroom window and likened lying in his bed to lying in a fishing boat on the lake.

Notes

References

{{Reflist, 30em Roman villas in Italy Demolished buildings and structures in Italy