Vion d’Alibray teorico del teatro: la Prefazione “Au Lecteur” nel “Soliman”, ‘traduzione’ della tragedia di Prospero Bonarelli (1637: quando «un Cid […] a charmé tout Paris»)

Abstract

This article presents Charles Vion d’Alibray’s Préface to his translation of Prospero Bonarelli’s tragedy, Solimano. Vion’s long préfaces to his French translations of contemporary Italian theatre – to Tasso’s Aminta and Torrismondo, and to Cesare Cremonini’s Le pompe funebri, here reproduced and commented are a significant testimony of the theatrical querelles between 1620 and 1640. Prospero Bonarelli’s Solimano is the last Italian text translated by Vion (1637) and, unlike the other tragedies, it seemed that it was published without a preface (so it was reprinted in modern times). However, Soliman’s preface has finally been found: curiously, it was printed in a few examples of the same edition, with the same Privilège du Roy. It is a rich and interesting text, containing references to letters written by Bonarelli himself, and above all explicitly aware of the particular moment when Solimano was translated: the moment when the “temps des Préfaces” evoked by G. Dotoli was dissolving, while Corneille’s “temps” begins, dominating the French scenes with the first, stunning performance of his Cid, as Vion himself admits and declares.