Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

The anatomy of the perfect tragedy 

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GORINI CORIO, Giuseppe. ROSIMONDA VENDICATA Tragedia... In Milano: Nella Stamperia di Giuseppe Pandolfo Malatesta, MDCCXXIX [1729]. £850

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FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 56, 116; woodcut vignette on title-page, head- and tailpieces; some light browning and foxing; in contemporary stiff sprinkled wrappers; light wear to extremities but still an appealing copy.

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First editions of two tragedies by the prolific playwright and literary theorist Giuseppe Gorini Corio (1702-1766), with, by way of introduction, his ambitious manifesto on the art of tragedy, Trattato della perfetta tragedia, here printed for the first time.

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Gorini Corio had spent time in Paris, studying Corneille and Racine, and was the author of many plays, of which the majority were tragedies, starting with Rosimonda, which he published in 1720 at the age of 18. Although they are generally long-forgotten, they were part of a wider movement in early eighteenth-century Italy to rehabilitate tragedy as a genre, alongside the efforts of the likes of Maffei, whose career paralleled that of Gorini Corio.

 

Although his plays were not hugely successful, his Trattato della perfetta tragedia however was to have an immediate and lasting influence. Gorini Corio argued that tragedy had not yet reached its perfect state, criticising both Maffei’s attempt to reevaluate sixteenth-century Italian theatre and the French tragedies of Racine and Corneille. In his view, the basic principles of tragedy were the majestic and the plausible; historical truth was not merely unnecessary but undesirable, although the use of historical characters and events was admissible. The French tragedians are criticised for their implausible scenarios, while being praised for the dignity of their characters and their elevated moral tone. 

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Gorini Corio also addresses the question of language (Italian suiting tragedy better than French), the Aristotelian unities, the use of the chorus (the value of which he doubts), the necessity of verse, and the futility of blood on stage. In fact, Gorini Corio’s own plays did not always follow his own advice, and he was heavily influenced in practice by Corneille and Racine, with Rosimonda Vendicata largely based on Corneille’s Héraclius. 

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See Stefano Meschini’s entry on Gorini Corio in DBI Vol 58 (2002); IT\ICCU\MODE\025875; OCLC records a single copy outside Italy, at the BnF. 

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