ABSTRACT
The Union were led by Bernardino Lombardi, who payed Il Dottore. The exact date of their formation is uncertain, but a troupe called the ‘Uniti Comici’ certainly played in Ferrara in 1578 in the private rooms of the Duchess of Urbino, who was, presumably en visite. Ferrara had a history of support for Humanist theatre under the Este family during the Renaissance, but relations with itinerant commedia dell’arte troupes were less certain – companies seemed to prefer to avoid direct patronage by the Estenses and played at Ferrara for short periods at a commercial rate. The Uniti, for example, turned instead to the Duke of Mantua (Vincenzo Gonzaga), replacing the Confidenti in his affections, and were in fact alternatively known as ‘The Company of the Most Serene Duke of Mantua’. Some say that the Duke’s casting couch proclivities finally caught him out, since he later married the seconda donna innamorata, Aurelia, who originally wrote to him ‘to advance herself in the profession’.
