ABSTRACT
In 1982 Ferdinanda Taviani proposed in II segreto della commedia dell'arte that the earliest known actresses in Italy may have been drawn from the ranks of the courtesans, the oneste meretrici, forced from Rome after the Council of Trent 11545-63) by papal reforming zeal.J This hypothesis has been affirmed by several other scholars in Europe and the United States and is becoming widely accepted not just as a feasible theory but as gospel, the exclusive conduit through which women entered the western theatre. 2
Taviani commences his justification with an analysis of a contract signed in Rome on 10 October 1564 establishing an association of six men and one woman to perform plays. The woman-the first actress known in Italy-was identified as a domina, Donna Lucrezia of Siena, and the contract signed in her house on the Campo Marzio.-' From this document Taviani gleans the following: (I) Unlike her male colleagues, Lucrezia had no surname but, like the great courtesans Imperia, Cesarilla, and Giulia, was known only by a single name of classical inspiration. 121 Lucrezia lived as a domina, mistress of a household, in her own property on the Campo Marzio, unusual for a sixteenthcentury woman. Taviani's interpretation is that Lucrezia was a courtesan, and he continues to construct a series of parallels between the courtesans and the early actresses.• His most important observation is that the courtesan, trained in the arts of music, dance, and civil conversation, had the same skills that the actress playing the innamorata brought to the commedia all'improvviso. The theory is plausible and the theorizing is elegant, although the rush to belief is disquieting.
