ABSTRACT
I Comici Confidenti announced by their name that they were ‘confident of pleasing’ their audience, thus comparing themselves with the already established Gelosi, and, perhaps also implying that they could do better than being merely ‘zealous’ – thereby taking over the first position among equals. This they certainly did, but not until the Gelosi disbanded. There may, in effect, have been two different companies playing under the Confidenti name since there is no continuity of records between those of 1574-99, when they were led initially by Vittoria Piissimi under the patronage of the Duke of Mantua, and those of 1611-39, when they were managed by Flaminio Scala under the patronage of Don Giovanni de’ Medici, the member of the Medici family charged with running the Uffizi Palace.
