1 • Premessa
abstract
This essay focuses on the identification of the forty-three addressees of the third book of letters by the Venetian playwright and actor Andrea Calmo (Venice, Stefano Alessi, 1552). We aim to clarify the historical characters’ identities which have remained unknown in the modern edition of the work, conducted by Vittorio Rossi in 1888. The research results allow to observe an internal subdivision of the book in three segments. It is in fact possible to identify different groups of addressees, with a distinction based on social background: a) Venetian patricians; b) noblemen of the Mainland, middle-class men, artists, intellectuals, soldiers, clerics, artisans from Venice and from other territories of the peninsula; c) prostitutes.
Keywords: Sixteenth-century Venice • Andrea Calmo • Venetian patriciate • Dialect literature • Venetian literature