ABSTRACT
There is only one recorded instance of Valerini leading his own troupe and, strictly speaking, we do not know enough about it for the company to qualify for inclusion here. He is, however, an interesting example of the way in which Commedia began to claim social, and even clerical acceptance in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. A nobleman by birth from Verona, Valerini was a Doctor of Philosophy, a playwright, a poet of some accomplishment in the vernacular as well Latin and Greek and, as we have seen, the bereaved lover of Vicenza, as well as the father of Diana Ponti of the Dediosi. Although he played Aurelia, the distinction between his own name and that of his role was stronger than in many cases.
