Bidspirit auction | MAFFEI (Scipione). MEROPE Tragedia. Firenze.

MAFFEI (Scipione). MEROPE Tragedia. Firenze. 1817. - MAFFEI (Scipione) MEROPE Tragedia . Firenze: Per Leonardo Ciardetti, a spese del Gabinetto Letterario all'Insegna di Pallade, 1817. 108 pp., 1 grav.; 190 mm. Scipione Maffei (Verona, 1675; Verona, 1755), marquis, scholar, archaeologist, and man of the theatre, was one of the great Italian intellectuals of the 18th century. Co-founder of the ”Giornale dei Letterati d'Italia” (1710), a central figure in the Arcadia Academy, and a reformer of Italian drama, he is the author of an extensive body of work in literature, archaeology, and criticism. His ”Merope, ” however, is the work for which he is universally known. A tragedy in free verse, first performed in Modena in 1713 with remarkable success. The plot is inspired by Euripides' lost tragedy about Cresphon: Queen Merope, widow of the murdered king of Messenia, is pressured by the usurper Polyphon to marry him while awaiting the return of her son, whom she believed to be dead. The work was praised by Voltaire—who made his own version of it—and decisively influenced Vittorio Alfieri. Frontispiece with engraved scene. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate