Rvtzvanschad Il Giovane…Arcisopratragichissima Tragedia… Da Catuffio Panchianio Bubulco Arcade.
?Venice, 1722.
4to (206 x 144 mm.). Contemporary pagination: [i blank], [v], 81, [3 blank]p. In a single elegant cursive hand, a few contemporary corrections by a second hand — ?the author’s.
Contemporary speckled pastepaper wrappers.
PRE-PUBLICATION — A TRIUMPH OF THEATRICAL SATIRE.
Valaresso thrilled audiences and enriched printers, publishers, translators, imitators and musical adapters with his trenchant Rutzvanscad, a tale of incest, revenge and fatally mistaken identity. Its ridiculously stilted dialog mocks the contemporary imitation of ancient Greek theater. The actors directly address the audience, painfully lay bare the play’s structure and maximize wholly unpronounceable character and place names. In the parodic final scene everyone dies, so the prompter tells everyone to leave.
THIS MANUSCRIPT CONTAINS A MONOLOG NOT IN THE PRINTED EDITIONS. It criticizes contemporary authors (identified in the margins) and sheds light on the Venetian Accademia de’ Tolentini and its role in the Baroque revival of Greek tragedy.
Tavazzi identified five other pre-publication manuscripts of the text (Venice Marciana and Correr, Treviso BC, Vatican, and one in private hands — not ours). A note facing the title states this copy was revised and corrected by the author in 1722. In good condition.
¶See Tavazzi’s “Rutzvanscad il giovane di Zaccaria Valaresso: note sulle edizioni e sulla tradizione manoscritta” in Lettere italiane 65 (2013) 77-94.
Price: $5,800.00