Padua and Venice: The first complete translations of Shakespeare's plays

Abstract

For the Italian cultural milieu, the second half of the eighteenth century is an important moment: along with the rest of Europe, Italy participates in the debate about the theory and practice of vertere. As a result, it is during this period that the discovery and reception of Shakespeare's works begins to take place. This article aims at showing how Italian translation techniques changed and improved over time, and how literati as Melchiorre Cesarotti, Francesco Gritti, and Giustina Renier Michiel contributed to a new literary taste during a complex period in which several poetic genres coexisted.