Giovan Battista Cini

Giovan Battista Cini was born in 1525 and died circa 1586. He was an Italian renaissance playwright at the court of the Medici in Florence.

Cini was a member of The Florentine academy of art which was founded by Cosimo I at the height of the Medici power during the 16th century. Contemporaries of Cini's there were his fellow authors Amberi, Lasca (author of the renowned "Story of Dr Manente", and Cecchi and Giambattista Gelli. They studied the intellectual philosophies from Plautus and Terenzio to Ariosto and Machiavelli.

Florence at this time, under the Medici, was a seat of learning and culture, indeed Florence led Europe as a theatrical centre. By the 15th century Florence was renowned for its "sacre rappresentazioni." These were religious dramas incorporating stage machinery. However what was an important step to what was to become modern theatre was the Florentine love of staging classical comedies, unlike the rest of intellectual Europe which merely read them. The first instance of a Florentine classical production was as early as 1476 when Terenzio's Andria was performed translated into Latin so that it could be clearly understood by a wider audience. The next step came in the late 16th century came when musical interludes were incorporated into the text and spoken dialogue, this was the birth of modern opera.

One of these early "operas" was Cini's principal work which drew on the fables of Cupid and Psyche. This work, which Cini dedicated "to the future of Grand Duchy of Florence"' was performed accompanied by music composed by Alexander Striggio. Striggio (1535 - 1589) was the principal composer to the Florentine Medici court.

Another of his works, "La Verdova" (The Widow), was the subject of a spectacular theatrical set designed by the Medici's architect Baldassarre Lanci complete with mechanical revolving scenery. Lanci actually changed the location of the play, in order to include more scene changes than Cini had written.

These elaborate and complicated performances were generally staged to honour weddings and baptisms of the Medici family. or to greet the arrival in Florence of foreign princes and potentates.

During Cini's time performances were generally held in the courtyard of a palazzo where often grandstands would be erected. The courtyard would be tented by cloth on which was painted a sky. The Palazzo Pitti (which the Medici had purchased from Luca Pitti in 1549) had an amphitheatre constructed in its Boboli Gardens for such performances. At one performance it was recorded that seventy candelabra bearing putti were suspended from the "sky" providing light, while the performers entered the theatrical arena on ornamental floats against a background showing Venice. Venice and the Sahara were a popular locations for Florentine plays, and in choosing these locations Cini was no exception.

After 1586, ironically the supposed year of Cini's death, theatrical performances tended to be held in a specially constructed theatre at the Palazzo degli Uffizi.