Venetian Theatermanias

WewillcertainlyhavetotalkaboutTheatermaniain thepluralform,giventhespecificityof its Venetianvariety.Itsfirstepiphany–whichcameaboutin atimespannotcontainablewithintheconfinesof asingle century,evenif, as we shall see,it wouldonlymanifest itsfullforceinthe eighteenth-century–evolvedfromtheendogenouscharacterofVenetiancivilization,duetoits primarilyurbanmorphology, whichby its very na-tureled to distinctanthropologicaldevelopments. Venice–unlikeanyothercity–evolvedits particularpolymorphic,polycentricimageinanuninterruptedcontinu-ity thatrejectedtheisolatedperceptionof single architecturaland pictorialmotifs,thusmakingit impossibleto fix its physiognomyinasingle, all-encompassingsce-nography.Morethanfromtheimpressionof acity thatbasedits poweronthe mobilityofwater,the stunned admirationof foreign travelerswhosurrenderedtothis“mag-netof Europe”–significantly, thetitleof apopularlate seventeenth-centuryguide-book–werebowledover by theexperienceof an openurbanspace,inexplicablyunwalled,which,in aflurryof images, vauntedoneof the mostamplearchitecturallanguages in structural contrasts andcomplexities.