Lucrezia Di Siena

Lucrezia Di Siena (fl. 1564), was a stage actress active in Rome and other locations in the Italian peninsula. ^[1]^[2] She is known as one of the first, and possibly the very first, identified female actor in Europe since antiquity; at the very least, she is believed to have been the first woman in Europe to sign a theatrical contract.^[3]

Career

She signed a signature for an acting contract by a Commedia dell'arte theatre company in Rome on 10 October 1564, in which she is stated to be able to sing, do declamation and play music.^[3]^[4] This is the first time any professional actress is mentioned in Italy since antiquity and the first time any actress known by name to perform in Commedia dell'artre.^[5] All other members of the company were men.

She is assumed to have been a former courtesan, a cortigiana onesta, a common background for the first generation of actresses in Italy: this was a good background for an actress because courtisans of that class were normally instructed in singing, declamation, music and dance, subjects otherwise rarely attainable for women, and the fact that she was noted with no last name in combination with the honorary title Domina (a common way of address for courtesans), supports this assumption.^[6]

After this, actresses became common in Italy, and she was followed only three years later by Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia.

References

^ Mirella Schino, Dodici schede sul teatro italiano in Glynne Wickham, Storia del Teatro, Il Mulino, Bologna 1988
^ Bellavitis, Anna (2018-01-11). Il lavoro delle donne nelle città dell'Europa moderna. Viella Libreria Editrice. ISBN 978-88-6728-955-4.
^ ^a ^b Kerr, Rosalind (2015-01-01). The Rise of the Diva on the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell'Arte Stage. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-4911-8.
^ Ray, Meredith K. (2023-12-22). Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-003-81389-7.
^ Scott, Virginia (2010-07-08). Women on the Stage in Early Modern France: 1540–1750. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-49164-8.
^ Jan Sewell, Clare Smout, The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage

[1] Mirella Schino, Dodici schede sul teatro italiano in Glynne Wickham, Storia del Teatro, Il Mulino, Bologna 1988

[2] Bellavitis, Anna (2018-01-11). Il lavoro delle donne nelle città dell'Europa moderna. Viella Libreria Editrice. ISBN 978-88-6728-955-4.

[:0-3] Kerr, Rosalind (2015-01-01). The Rise of the Diva on the Sixteenth-Century Commedia dell'Arte Stage. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-4911-8.

[4] Ray, Meredith K. (2023-12-22). Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-003-81389-7.

[5] Scott, Virginia (2010-07-08). Women on the Stage in Early Modern France: 1540–1750. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-49164-8.

[6] Jan Sewell, Clare Smout, The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Women on Stage

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