Nativity and Magi Plays in Renaissance Florence

Abstract

A scanning of Richard Trexler's provisional checklist of theatrical performances in fourteenthand fifteenth-century Florence reveals two types of Christmas dramas: Nativity plays and Magi plays.1 This should come as no surprise, given that the Christmas holiday lasts until Epiphany. When we examine the dates of these recorded performances, however, we notice an unusual pattern. While the Magi plays, as expected, are listed as having been staged at Epiphany,2 none of the Nativity plays recorded by Trexler were staged during the Christmas season; instead, they are listed in connection with the parade of floats commemorating St. John's day (24 June) and are associated with the youths' confraternity of the Archangel Raphael, also known as the confraternity of the Nativity.3 It would seem that there were no Nativity plays staged at Christmas! Such a conclusion is, by all means, untenable. Several reasons may be advanced for the absence of Nativity plays at Christmas in the official documents examined by Trexler. One is that these plays were the rule, not the exception, during the Christmas season. Many churches, convents, and confraternities must have staged some type of dramatic or theatrical re-enactment of the Nativity, from actual plays to tableaux vivants, and therefore no one considered them especially memorable. Another is that these plays were of a private devotional nature, not official public displays of civic pride, and as such they did not find their way into civic records. When they were performed in conjunction with a civic celebration, as in the case of the parade of floats associated with the St. John's festivities, then they became memorable and appropriate for mention in personal or public records.