Roma 1566. I collegi gesuiti alle origini del teatro barocco

The Jesuit taste for Baroque theatre appeared as early as their colleges were sprouting up all over the world. The origins of Jesuit school theatre have usually been dated back to 1566, when a Saul was performed at Collegium Germanicum. Extant manuscripts prove that this play was authored by Miguel Venegas, the celebrated Coimbra College Jesuit playwright, and that Jesuit playwriting tradition was inherited by Francesco Benci, the beloved pupil of Marc-Antoine Muret, who taught at La Sapienza, and by Bernardino Stefonio, Benci’s pupil. This paper aims at retracing this tradition, showing the genealogy that runs from Collège de Guyenne through Coimbra to Rome and further to Baroque tragedy.