Isabella Andreini
Isabella Andreini (1562-1604) was an influential Italian actress, playwright, and poet, recognized as one of the most celebrated figures in the commedia dell'arte tradition. Born into a poor Venetian family in Padua, she received a classical education and became fluent in multiple languages. At the young age of fourteen, she joined the traveling theatrical troupe Gelosi, where she quickly rose to prominence, often portraying the role of the romantic heroine known as prima donna inamorata. Andreini married fellow actor Francesco Andreini, and together they co-directed the Gelosi, performing across Italy and France.
Isabella's literary contributions included pastoral plays, with her most notable work being "La Mirtilla," which humorously subverted gender roles. She gained recognition for her poetry and was accepted into the Accademia degli Intenti of Pavia, an honor rare for women at the time. Her performances, particularly "La Pazzia d'Isabella," were well-received, including at royal weddings and for the French court. Andreini's legacy continued after her untimely death in Lyon, where her husband published her works, solidifying her status as a pioneering figure in the arts. Her life exemplified the possibility of balancing family and professional success for women in the performing arts during the Renaissance.
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Subject Terms
Isabella Andreini
Italian actor, poet, and playwright
- Born: 1562
- Birthplace: Padua, Republic of Venice (now in Italy)
- Died: July 10, 1604
- Place of death: Lyon, France
Isabella Andreini was the leading lady of the Gelosi, the traveling professional troupe of actors renowned for commedia dell’arte, or improvised comedy. She wrote songs, sonnets, letters, and La Mirtilla, the first pastoral drama known to be written by a woman.
Early Life
Little is known about the childhood of Isabella Andreini (ee-zah-BEHL-lah ahn-dray-EE-nee). The main source about her life is a 1782 biography by Francesco Saverio Bartoli. According to Bartoli’s account, Isabella Canali was born to a Venetian family in Padua. Although the Canali family was poor, Isabella received a complete classical education. She was especially interested in literary culture and became fluent in several languages.
In 1576, at the age of fourteen, she joined the traveling theatrical troupe, the Gelosi (Compagnia dei Comici Gelosi) and thus began her stage career. She was invited into the troupe by its director, Flaminio Scala, a nobleman, theatrical manager, and scenario writer. The Gelosi was a well-established theatrical company of professional actors who performed both fully scripted plays and commedia dell’arte (comedy marked by a combination of improvisation and prepared scripts). Commedia dell’arte was popular for more than three centuries in Italy .
With the Gelosi, Isabella would play the lead female role of prima donna inamorata (romantic prima donna) or inamorata (woman beloved and in love.) In 1578, at the age of sixteen, Isabella Canali married thirty-year-old Francesco Andreini, a fellow actor in the troupe. They had four daughters and three sons.
Life’s Work
Isabella and Francesco often performed on stage together, with Francesco playing the leading male role of inamorato (man in love), and later, the role of the Spanish captain, Capitan Spavento. Eventually, the couple became codirectors of the Gelosi and then toured Italy and France. Isabella would create a new kind of inamorata, who was educated, eloquent, and beautiful, and she enjoyed great success acting in the title role in a series of plays: Lucky Isabella, Isabella’s Pranks, Isabella the Astrologer, and Jealous Isabella.
She was also a published writer, whose sonnets were included in Italian anthologies by the mid-1580’s. In 1588, Andreini published La Mirtilla (English translation, 2002), a pastoral play in verse, modeled after Torquato Tasso’s Aminta (1573; English translation, 1591), which the Gelosi company had performed in 1573. Tasso was the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance and a personal role model for Andreini. Unlike Aminta, however, La Mirtilla reverses gender roles in favor of the female, often humorously. In act 3, Satiro, for example, a satyr (half man and half goat) is attracted to the nymph Filli and plans to capture and ravish her if she does not accept his attention. Filli, though, flatters Satiro into releasing her and then tricks him into being tied to a tree. He begs to be untied, but she just mocks him and leaves him crying out to her.
Satiro:
The play was tremendously successful and it was published in numerous editions.
On May 13, 1589, in Florence, Andreini performed her most famous piece, La Pazzia d’Isabella (the madness of Isabella), at the wedding festivities of Ferdinand de’ Medicis and the French princess, Christine of Lorraine. In 1599, they performed before Henry IV of France and his new Italian wife, Marie de Médicis.
In 1601, Isabella was accepted as a member of the prestigious Accademia degli Intenti of Pavia. It was unusual for women to be accepted into academies, but her literary work earned her this great honor. Accesa became her pseudonym. Later that year, she published a collection of poems called Rime (partial English translation, 1997), which included madrigals, eclogues, sonnets, and other poetic forms. She had also collected 148 fictional epistles or letters to be published under the title of Lettere (partial English translation, 1997). A French translation of Rime was published and received critical acclaim.
In 1602, the Gelosi traveled in northern Italy. In 1603-1604, the troupe was in France performing for the court of Henry IV and Queen Marie de’ Medici, who praised Isabella’s acting. On their return trip, Andreini miscarried her eighth child and died in Lyon, France, on July 10, 1604. She was forty-two years old. In Lyon, there was a great public funeral, where she was deeply mourned by the public. A commemorative medallion was created and inscribed with the Latin words aeterna fama (eternal fame).
Her grieving husband disbanded the Gelosi, retired from acting, and moved to Mantua, where he worked on editing and publishing Isabella’s remaining works. In 1605, he published Rime . . . Parte seconda (rime, part two). This book included poetry written by Isabella after 1600, poems written about her, and some pastoral poems, monologues, and dialogues from her comedies. In 1606, one of their sons, Giambattista Andreini, a prolific playwright, dedicated a collection of poems to his mother.
In 1607, Francesco Andreini published Isabella’s Lettere. These fictional epistles were not dated nor did they indicate the place written or the addressee. They were reflections on various subjects, such as love and moral or social issues. The value of virtue and propriety, which characterized Isabella’s public image, was a pervasive theme of the epistles. The most famous is the eloquent defense of women called “Del nascimento della donna” (on the birth of women), addressed to a father who was disappointed that his newborn was a daughter and not a son.
Significance
Isabella Andreini was the most celebrated comica (dramatic actress) of her time. A great beauty who could speak and act in several languages, she was one of the greatest inamorati in the history of Italian comedy. She was the only female actor of the time to write and publish her own compositions.
As both a famous actress and paragon of virtue, she showed that it was possible to have a family and to be successful as an actor. Such theatrical families became more common after Isabella’s time.
Bibliography
Andreini, Isabella. La Mirtilla: A Pastoral. Translated by Julie D. Campbell. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002. This is the first English translation of La Mirtilla, including complete biographical information and a discussion of the work. Illustrated.
Hunningher, Benjamin. Essays on Drama and Theatre. Amsterdam: Baarn Moussault, 1973. Includes Robert Erenstein’s essay “Isabella Andreini: A Lady of Virtue and High Renown.” Illustrated, with bibliography.
MacNeil, Anne. Music and Women of the Commedia dell’Arte in the Late Sixteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Scholarly analysis of musical settings of Andreini’s poems, the original Italian and English translations of twelve poems from Rime, and the singing contest from La Mirtilla. Illustrated, with music, bibliography, and an index.
Panizza, Letizia, ed. A History of Women’s Writing in Italy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. The section on the Renaissance, the Counter-Reformation, and the seventeenth century includes discussions of Andreini’s letter writing, lyric poetry, and fiction writing. Bibliography.
Panizza, Letizia, ed. Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Chapter 18, “Isabella Andreini and Others: Women on Stage in the Late Cinquecento,” is a scholarly account of Andreini’s life and contributions to the Italian Renaissance. Extensive footnotes.
Russell, Rinaldinia, ed. Italian Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. The chapter on Andreini includes biographical information, an analysis of recurring themes in her works, a survey of criticism, and a lengthy bibliography.
Stortoni, Laura Anna, ed. Women Poets of the Italian Renaissance: Courtly Ladies and Courtesans. Translated by Laura Anna Stortoni and Mary Prentice Lillie. New York: Italica Press, 1997. A section on Andreini presents a biography and selected pieces from La Mirtilla, Rime, and Lettere, in Italian and in English; with useful footnotes. Map, comprehensive bibliography.