ABSTRACT
Diana Ponti, ‘Lavinia’, was the capocomico, and the company was also known by her name, sometimes as the Diana Comica Dediosa. There is no complete company list extant, but the ubiquitous Tristano Martinelli played Arlecchino for a time. Montaigne saw them in Pisa in 1581 during his Italian travels and records that Zanni was called Fargnocola. He visited the actresses backstage and sent them presents of fish [sic].41 Ponti was probably not with them at the time, not because Montaigne does not mention her, but because she is known to have appeared with the Confidenti shortly after. She was certainly back in charge when the Dediosi played in Mantua 1585 and Genoa in 1586 and 1588. In that year the Pope banned female performers from the Papal State as part of the Counter-Reformation, with the result that the Dediosi could only obtain a licence to perform in Rome as a ‘men only’ company – and so presumably went there without Ponti. Women were, however, allowed to watch their performances, except the courtesans who had been banished. Whether some of them went off to join the second oldest profession and become comici dell’arte remains a matter of speculation. The Dediosi were back in Rome in 1590, and Mantua in 1593, possibly Ferrara in 1594, Milan and Cremona 1595, Mantua and Bologna 1596, Genoa, May 1587. In that year Flaminio Scala (Flavio) seems to have taken over as capocomico. The last definite record of them is in Verona in August 1599.
