Scaramuzza

[BADA, Giambattista.] Scaramuzza Poema in varnacolo familiar venezian. Venice, Giovanni Antonio Curti, 1788. 12mo (178 x 103 mm), engraved frontispiece, pp. 226, [2] errata; uncut in the original marbled boards; stitching coming loose, some marginal pencil markings, some light staining to upper gutter margin. First edition of a curious narrative poem on the adventurous life of the Neapolitan commedia dell'arte actor Tiberio Fiorilli in his most popular role - as depicted on the frontispiece. Fiorilli (1608 - 1694) is best known for developing the role of Scaramouche, the unreliable and unscrupulous servant with a penchant for intrigue. He was not the first to play the role, but greatly developed and popularised it. He removed the traditional commedia dell'arte masks, powdered his face white and employed grimaces and miming as part of his act. With his own troupe Fiorilli toured France, became a favourite of the Dauphin, and also played in London in the 1670s to great acclaim. The author Giambattista Bada (died after 1818) was a dialect writer from Treviso. Ebert 20468; OCLC: Getty, Newberry Library, University of Maryland, BL, Stuttgart, Berlin.