Sparti, Barbara: An 18th-century Venetian Moresca: popular dance, pyrrhic, or regulated competition?
The moresca was "a type of popular combat performed for public festivities in Venice between the rival factions of the Nicolotti and the Castellani, when they competed in public showing off their athletic exercises. It was performed, by many young men from the lowest strata of the common people," in a single circle by 8, 16, or 24 men, each with a blunt dagger-like sword with which each man confronted his adversary (next to him in the circle). The morescanti were led by a Master who stood alone in the centre. The sources for the Venetian moresca are: (1) a collection of seven tinted pen-and-ink drawings from 1815 which illustrate each of the principal parts, and (2) "an exact description of the game of the moresca showing how to perform it with all its movements and commands" in a register of the years 1670-1847. We also find the Nicolotti "on tour" in 1759 performing morescas at Bologna's Festa della Porchetta, and two illustrations show the Nicolotti doing the moresca on Venice's frozen lagoon in December 1788.
I intend to analyze, in part, this moresca,benefiting from the expertise of a specialist in historical swordsmanship. A brief comparison will be made with the moreska of Korcula (Croatia) and Arbeau's Bouffons in terms of type, formation, sword cuts, music, pause-refrain, steps and figures, costumes, as well as comparing the where (performance places), the when (seasonal performance periods), the who (performers and audience) and the why (for what reasons?).
By the end of the 17th century, the once powerful Venice that had ruled over much of Italy, the Adriatic, and the Mediterranean, had lost all its former grandeur. The 18th-century Serenissima was "the playground of Europe" and tourism her major source of income. Carnival became commercialized, and the nobility organized their own, separate, balls and festivities. In 1797, the 1000 years of the Venetian Republic came to an end with Napoleon's suppression and the subsequent domination by Austria that lasted until the unity of Italy in 1866. How did these major changes affect the moresca? How and why was it transformed from a spontaneous celebration to a regulated athletic competition? How was it described by Venetians and foreign visitors before and after the demise of the Republic?
Barbara Sparti, Rome, Italy
Barbara Sparti is a dance historian specialized in 15th-17th century Italian dance who has performed and choreographed period works for theatre and opera. She founded and directed the Gruppo di Danza Rinascimentale between 1975-88. She was visiting Professor at University of California at Los Angeles, and guest lecturer-choreographer in Israel, UCSanta Cruz, and Princeton (in residence in April 2002). Besides her edition-translation of Guglielmo Ebreo’s 1463 dance treatise (Oxford), and her Introduction to the Santucci 1614 dance treatise (Olms), recent research and publications deal with style and aesthetics, musical questions, Jewish (and non) dancing-masters, improvisation, the moresca, iconography, Italian baroque dance. She is particularly interested in going beyond clichés such as "court dance", "the first ballet", and placing early dance in its socio-economic and political contexts.
