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Commedia dell’Arte

Print Sources

• Beaumont, Cyril W. The History of Harlequin. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1926.
• Braun, E. W. "Some Early Furstenberg Figures of Italian Comedians." Burlington Magazine 14 (January 1909), pp. 217-22.
  A source of visual representations.
• Bucknell, P. A. Commedia dell’Arte at the Court of Louis XIV. London: Stainer & Bell, 1980.
• Caputi, Anthony. Buffo: The Genius of Vulgar Comedy. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978.
  Folk, popular comedy through the ages.
• Chappell, Miles L. Jacques Callot and the Theatre. Champaign: University of Illinois, Krannert Art Museum, 1986.
• Ducharte, Pierre L. The Italian Comedy. New York: Dover, 1965.
  Extensive bibliography. Basic research tool.
• Fo, Dario. The Tricks of the Trade. London: Routledge, 1991.
  Fo married into one of the families of Italian commedia performers whose roots in the tradition date back to at least the seventeenth century. He brings a lifetime and a family full of historical background, performance techniques and anecdotes to the work.
• Gealt, Adelheid M. "Two New Puncinello Drawings by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo," Arte Veneta, XXXIII(1979): 153-55.
• ________. Domenico Tiepolo, the Punchinello Drawings. New York: George Braziller, 1986.
• Gordon, Mel. Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the Commedia dell’Arte. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1983. 0-933826-69-9
• Grantham, Barry. Playing Commedia: A Training Guide to Commedia Techniques. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003. 0-325-00346-7
  "This practical guide . . . consists principally of exercises and graded games for warm-up, mime, movement, word use, and working in masks." (Heinemann blurb) Includes period graphics and author's diagrams.
• Hackenbrock, Yvonne. The Untermyer Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956.
• Heck, T. F. Commedia dell’Arte: A Guide to the Primary and Secondary Literature. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988.
• Kennard, Joseph Spencer. The Italian Theatre. Volume 1. New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1932.
• Kennard, Joseph Spencer. Masks and Marionettes. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1967.
  Overview of the tradition and its influences on French and English comedy.
• Lea, Kathleen. Italian Popular Comedy: A Study in the Commedia dell’Arte. 2 Vols. New York: Russell and Russell, 1962.
• Marcia, Alberto. The Commedia Dell'Arte and the Masks of Amleto and Donato Sartori. Florence, Italy: La Casa Usher, 1980.
• Mazzone-Clementi, Carlo. “Commedia and the Actor,” The Drama Review, 18(March 1974).
• Maser, Edward A. "The Harlequinades of Giovanni Domenico Ferretti." Register of the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas /5(1978), pp. 16-35.
• McDowell, John H. "Some Pictorial Aspects of Early Commedia Dell'Arte Acting." Studies in Philology, 39 (1942), pp. 47-64.
• Nagler, A. M. "The Commedia Drawing of the Corsini Scenari." Maske und Kothern, 15 1969), pp. 6-10.
• Nicoll, Allardyce. Mask, Mimes, and Miracles. New York: Cooper Square, 1963.
• ________. The World of Harlequin. London: Cambridge University Press, n.d.
• Niklaus, Thelma. Harlequin. New York: George Brazillier, Inc., 1956.
• Olson, Nancy. Gavarni: The Carnival Lithographs. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1979.
• Oreglia, Giacomo. The Commedia dell’Arte. New York: Hill and Wang, 1968.
• Pietropaolo, D., ed. The Science of Buffoonery: Theory and History of the Commedia dell’Arte. Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, Inc., 1989.
• Posner, Donald. "Jacques Callot and the Dances Called Sfessania." The Art Bulletin, LIX/2 (June 1977), pp. 203-16.
• Rolfe, Bari. Commedia dell’Arte, A Scene Study Book. Berkeley, CA: Personabooks, 1977.
• ________. “Commedia dell’Arte and Mime,” in Theatrical Movement, A Bibliographical Anthology, Bob Fleshman, ed. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986.
• ________. Farces, Italian Style. Berkeley, CA: Personabooks, n.d.
• Rudlin, John. Commedia dell’Arte: An Actor’s Handbook. New York: Routledge, 1994. 0-415-04770-6
  Includes techniques for improvising stock characters.
• Russell, H. Diane. Jacques Callot, Prints and Drawings. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1975.
• Salerno, Henry F. editor. Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte: Flaminio Scala's "Il Teatro delle favole rappresentative". New York: New York University Press, 1967.
• Sand, Maurice. The History of the Harlequinade. 2 Vols. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1968.
• Scala, F. Scenarios of the Commedia dell’Arte, trans. and ed. by Henry F. Salerno. New York: New York University Press, 1967.
• Schwartz, I. A. The Commedia dell'Arte. New York: Institute of French Studies, 1993.
  Overview of the tradition with substantial information on the commedia tradition in France.
• Smith, Winifred. The Commedia dell’Arte. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1964.
• Tait, Hugh. "The Commedia dell'Arte in Glass and Porcelain." Apollo, 78 (1963), pp. 261-73.
• Sterling, C. "Early Paintings of the Commedia dell'Arte in France."Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art n.s. 2 (1943), pp. 11-32

Other Sources

• The Mask
  A journal published in the early part of the twentieth century that featured many articles about the subject as well as translations of scenari. Especially useful for arcane/obscure aspects of the character, text and performance.
• www.ozi.com/commedia
  Offers general background information. Links to other sites that feature information about currently active commedia troupes, festivals, sources, performances, etc.

last updated 25 September, 2008