Improvisatori

[5] Throughout the Renaissance (which Haar defines as the period spanning 1350 to 1600), an improvisatore or improvisatrice (singular feminine form of “improvisatori”) was unlikely to glean a living solely from performing improvised poetry (although some, like the Brandolini brothers of the 15th century[6] achieved a modicum of renown).

By 1754, the improvisatori were relevant enough within Italy that the Italian dramatist Carlo Goldoni published a play titled Poeta fanatico, in which the protagonist is an improvisational poet.

By the dawn of the 19th century, the influence of the improvisatori had expanded beyond the realm of art, and improvisational poets like Corilla[10] were receiving the laurel of Petrarch, Italy's highest poetic honor.

[12] Early 19th century novels, like Germaine de Staël's Corinne, or Italy (1807) and Francesco Furbo’s Andrew of Padua (1820), featured improvisatori as protagonists.

In his Remarks on Antiquities, Art, and Letters during an Excursion in Italy..., a work "cited as a travel classic for over a century",[17] Joseph Forsyth describes an encounter with an improvisatrice as follows:This lady convenes at her house a group of admirers, whenever she chooses to be inspired… She went round her circle and called on each person for a theme.

One morning, after other classical subjects had been sung, a Venetian count gave her the boundless field of Apollonius Rhodius, in which she displayed a minute acquaintance with all the Argonautick [sic] fable.

[18] This improvisatrice (Signora Fantastici) and her rival La Bandettini were street performers, who would frequently pass a hat around before, during, and after improvisations, into which appreciative listeners would make donations.

Thus he may always be fluent, and sometimes by accident be bright… Such strains pronounced and sung unmediated, such prompt eloquence, such sentiment and imagery flowing in rich diction, in measure, in rhyme, and in musick [sic], without interruption, and on subjects unforeseen, all this must evince in [the improvisatore] a wonderful command of powers… [27] Despite the significant role the improvisatori played in Italian literature from the Renaissance onward, non-Italian recognition of the medium was slow to crystallize.

Esterhammer notes "available paradigms for representing the nineteenth-century improvisatore… ranged from Romantic genius to manipulative professional, and responses varied from ridicule to rapture.

Similarly, Forsyth lamentedLady Fantastici [has] a wonderful command of powers; yet, judging from her studied and published compositions, which are dull enough, I should suspect that this impromptu exercise seldom leads to poetical excellence.

Serafino d'Acquila, the first improvvisatore that appeared in the language, was gazed at in the Italian courts as a divine and inspired being, till he published his verses and dispelled the illusion.