Pliny's Comedy and Tragedy villas

The 16th-century historian Paolo Giovio thought that it was at Lenno facing the Tragedy villa but that its remains were now underwater.

The Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius, Giovio's younger contemporary, also wrote that Lenno was the site of the Comedy villa.

In the early 1900s the French geographer Élisée Reclus had described Lierna as the site of a Pliny villa, although he did not specify which one.

[6][7] In 1751 John Boyle, 5th Earl of Orrery, a close friend of Alexander Pope, published an English translation of Pliny's letters.

[3] Pliny's own description of the Comedy villa mentioned that its terrace was gently curved like the bay on which it stood.