ABSTRACT
They were one of the first, if not the first, company to assume an emblematic name like those of the literary academies, instead of simply appearing under that of the troupe’s leading actor. Their name is taken from their motto: ‘Virtú, Fama ed Honor ne fêr Gelosi’ (‘Virtue, honour and renown are only for the jealous’), implying perhaps that those qualities are for those who guard them jealously. A further interpretation, involving a less current gloss on the word, would be that as actors they were zealous to please.19
Furthermore, like a modern production company, they also furnished themselves with a logo. Such an emblem was then known as an impresa – and here again the Gelosi were copying the practice of the academies. Their chosen image depicts a two-headed Janus: perhaps indicating the dual identity of the actor – or the necessity of looking in all directions in order to protect one’s good name as a performer. Certainly the two leading players whose reputation became almost synonymous with the company’s good name, Francesco and Isabella Andreini, were renowned for leading virtuous and honourable lives, though some of their fellow actors got into scrapes from which they may have been glad to look the other way.
