commedia erudita

Italian vernacular comedy of the 16th century, modelled on the Latin comedies of the Roman dramatists Plautus and Terence. While the action, construction, and certain stock characters were derived from the Roman models, and the unities of time (a single day) and place were observed, the settings were contemporary Italian urban ones. A well-known example is La mandragola/The Mandrake Root (1518) by Machiavelli.

The action involved several plots and these drew on a wealth of post-classical stories and novellas as well as on the Latin sources. Typically the problems faced by lovers are finally resolved in marriage after much intrigue and trickery involving mistaken identities and disguises, conniving servants and other clever, shady, or gullible comic types.

Important examples of the commedia erudita are La cassaria/The Coffer (1508) by Ariosto; La calandria/The Follies of Calandro (1513) by Bibbiena; and La triunizia and I lucidi (both 1549) by Firenzuola.

Later examples tend to have more intricate plots, to develop moral and romantic elements, and to show the increasing influence of the commedia dell'arte. Among the many writers of this later type are Anton Francesco Grazzini, Giovanni Maria Cecchi (1518–87), Pietro Aretino, Annibale Caro, and Giambattista della Porta. Francesco d'Ambra (1499–1558) wrote the prose play Il furto (acted 1544), and the verse plays and I Bernardi and La cofanaria (acted 1547/65).