La scena in movimento. Ipotesi ricostruttive del Teatro di San Moisè a Venezia

The 17th century saw the consolidation of a system of artistic entrepreneurship, whereby theatre owners rented out their spaces to the companies that performed there or placed them under the management of skilled entrepreneurs, capable of structuring their programming. Reliable records show that in 1613, at the behest of the brothers Alvise and Lorenzo Giustinian, a third theatre was opened in addition to the Michiel and the Tron in San Cassan. In keeping with the custom of the time, it was named after the parish in which it was located: San Moisè. Regarding the conformation of the founding building, the interpretative hypotheses make use of the scarce textual and iconographic sources available today, mostly located in public and private archives, libraries, Italian and foreign museums. First of all, it confirms the hypothesis that the theatre of San Moisè was already equipped with boxes in 1613. In this way, the essay delves into the vicissitudes of the building’s continuous remodelling and restoration over the centuries, through 3D reconstructions that are the result of careful studies of the heterogeneous materials already mentioned. Today, no trace remains of this precious theatre. It was closed in 1818 and, after a major reconstruction, became the Teatro Minerva in 1880. The interrupted memories of a bygone era are only sketched in the survey drawings made by the engineer Giuseppe Sicher in 1893, now kept in the private archives of Giustinian Recanati in Venice.