ABSTRACT
Scholars in a number of disciplines have examined the Orti Oricellari meetings as a trope of confluence and change. Historians and political scientists take a keen interest in these Florentine conversations as a significant, fluid source of modern political thought, while historians of ideas see evidence of Marsilio Ficino’s influence across a broader intellectual community that would drive developments in sixteenth-century philosophy and aesthetics. Literary critics cite the meetings to identify when vernacular language overtook Latin in scholarly literature. And historians of drama know that at least two members of the Orti group wrote vernacular tragedies in a new style, drawing material from Greek and Roman drama as well as from ancient history and contemporary events. Members had even enjoyed their own performance of Giovanni Rucellai’s vernacular tragedy, Rosmunda, within their elite conclave.3
