CANACE: TRAGEDIA DI M. SPERONE SPERONI, NOBILE PADOVANO. CANACE, ET MACAREO. (BOUND WITH) CAVALCANTI, BARTOLOMEO. GIVDITIO SOPRA LA TRAGEDIA DI CANACE, ET MACAREO.

by Sperone Speroni

Sperone Speroni was among the leading literary figures in Renaissance Italy, renowned as a theorist, essayist and author of dialogues (on love, discord, the dignity of women, and language), some of which led to problems with the Inquisition. His drama Canace (1542) gave rise to a polemic that resonated beyond his native country due to its controversial incest. The ill-fated lovers (and siblings) Canace and Macareus are discovered by their father, Aeolus, king of the winds, who wreaks terrible vengeance on them—not realizing that Venus is the instigator of their love for each other. With a plot derived from Ovid and dramatic elements taken from Seneca, the tragedy of Canace raises questions about the problem of incest and its role in the debate regarding nature versus culture, a controversial topic that is still current.

Elio Brancaforte is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, Tulane University. A comparatist, his interests include translation, cultural exchange, early modern travel literature and drama, and the history of cartography. Currently he is working on a project that examines how Safavid Iran was represented in word and image in six different European travel accounts.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1542

About the author

Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti (1500–1588) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy Accademia degli Infiammati and wrote on both moral and literary matters.

Sperone was the son of Bernardino Speroni degli Alvarotti and Lucia Contarini. In 1518 he obtained the artibus degree from the University of Padua and joined the Guild (Sacro Collegio) of artists and physicians. He lectured on philosophy at Padua, under the Chair of Logic. He interrupted his teachings to study at Bologna under Pietro Pomponazzi but, after Pietro's death, returned to Padua where he obtained an Extraordinary Chair of Philosophy, a post he held for another three years.
His literary career began with the publication of the Dialoghi ("Dialogues") at Venice (1542). Very famous and influential was his polemic with Giovan Battista Giraldi about the principles of theatre, involving Giraldi's tragedy Orbecche as well as Speroni's tragedy Canace. Between 1560 and 1564 he lived in Rome, where he became a close friend of Annibal Caro and frequented the meetings of the Accademia delle Notti Vaticane. He then returned to Padua, where he continued his literary production.
He died in Padua in 1588.