Ragionamenti intorno a l’Idea del theatro di Giulio Camillo Delminio. Lavori in corso

Abstract

Preliminary proof of a work in progress, the essay is given as a reasoned recognition of the critical reception of Giulio Camillo Delminio’s L’idea del theatro (1550). Intended, on the one hand, as a compendium useful to orient Scholars in the magmatic bibliography on L’idea, on the other hand, as a starting point for new study hypotheses about Camillo as an iconographer. Divided into three sections, the essay focuses, first, on the relevant role played by images in the architecture of L’idea. The second part is a sort of annotated bibliography that starts from Frances Yates’ famous essay, published in 1966. In the third part, two new proposals are discussed. The first one deals with the origin and meaning of the name "Delminio", explained from a philological point of view as a latinization aiming at Camillo’s own self-fashioning. The second one highlights the helpfulness of the list of annotated images in a manuscript in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, recently rediscovered, to clarify the meaning of some cryptic images in L’idea.