This volume on Rudens represents the seventeenth instalment of the Lecturae Plautinae Sarsinates. Its five papers in Italian cover specific issues concerning textual analysis, staging concerns, reception and the manuscript tradition, with material ranging from the fourth century b.c.e. to the sixteenth century c.e. The collection offers a well-rounded overview of comic scholarship, and its papers often engage and contend with one another.
First, López Gregoris examines Plautus' exploitation of physical senses for theatrical purposes. She focuses on their role in creating fictional environments that cannot be staged (e.g. the shipwreck, Rud. 148–77) and in distinguishing character morality (e.g. the different sensory experiences evoked by the heroines versus the pimp, Rud. 229–47, 485–558). Calabretta sets out to reconstruct the staging of Plautus' Rudens using cues and stage directions gleaned from the text. The discussion is not persuasive, however, and instead reads like a stage reconstruction of Diphilus' original. Calabretta does not subscribe to the audience's capacity for imagination that López Gregoris endorses, but rather assumes superfluous and inefficient staging effects to account for supposed difficulties. Implausible claims (such as requiring a functional, third door) are compounded by several basic oversights, including the lack of consideration for Plautine originality and an unquestioning faith in the monumental stage building endorsed by Bulle-Wirsing (1950) as part of Roman theatrical practice.
R. lauds the uniqueness of Rudens by examining a variety of comic devices and translating them into Italian. He cites the occasional use of serious tone, the coastal setting, the unparalleled recognition scene and the completeness of the ending as major points of distinction. Though the editor modestly postpones the placement of his paper, the broad scope of the discussion would make a more effective opening to the collection.
Valeri investigates the relationship between Ruzante's play La Piovana (1532) and Rudens, its model. Valeri persuasively argues that Ruzante's departures from the model are actually a concerted effort to insert additional Plautine comic mechanisms. Some of Ruzante's additions include contaminatio from Merc. 667–802 and a clever slave who shows clear allusions to Pseudolus (Pseud.) and Palaestrio (Mil.). Finally, Bandini attempts to decipher a relationship between Camerarius' scholarly edition of Plautus (1522) and the corrections made to his two primary codices, B and C. Unfortunately, Bandini only finds inconsistency, but this is a result in itself.
The juxtaposition of the López Gregoris and Calbretta papers is striking and the proximity of the Valeri paper to Bandini's report works well. There is no index or general bibliography, but images are effectively used by Bandini and Calabretta. This is a thought-provoking collection on an important play which will further stimulate debate on difficult issues such as stagecraft and originality while also shedding light on the often overlooked reception and textual transmission of comedy.
