Drammaturgie imperiali a Bologna: l’‘Amor costante’ di Alessandro Piccolomini (1542)

During the Lent of the Year 1542 the comedy L’amor costante by Alessandro Piccolomini was staged in the convent of the Servi di Maria in Bologna. The performance, quoted in a passage by Girolamo Ruscelli, is still mysterious in many aspects, but it shows that Bologna promptly adopted the most innovative features of the Senese dramaturgy. A kind of «imperial dramaturgy» which, if related to the activity of the academy of the Viridario of Giovanni Filoteo Achillini and of the Circle of Achille Bocchi, as well as with the theater academies of the Affumati and of the Sonnacchiosi, allows us to demonstrate how religious concerns and pro-imperial positions were shared by Siena, Vicenza, Lucca and the most important Bolognese academies of the early sixteenth century.