Judeo-Roman on Stage: The Scena all’ebraica in the Novantanove Disgrazie di Pulcinella (Rome 1769) by Gregorio Mancinelli

Abstract

Sometimes, in the Commedia dell’arte, Jewish characters who speak Judeo-Italian appear on the stage, revealing a strong intention on the part of non-Jewish authors to mimic the language spoken by contemporary Jews. Therefore, the study of these external sources is very useful to enrich our knowledge of the Judeo-Italian of the early modern period. In this article I will present the scena all’ebraica of the comedy Novantanove Disgrazie di Pulcinella (Rome 1769) by Gregorio Mancinelli. The text, published here in its entirety for the first time, will be preceded by an introduction and accompanied by an English translation and an analysis of the language and contents.