author
Agostino Ricchi
1512–1564
A Renaissance doctor with a playwright’s eye for lively human comedy, he is remembered above all for I tre tiranni, a bold early-sixteenth-century stage work performed during the celebrations for Charles V’s coronation in Bologna.
1 Audiobook
I tre tiranni Commedie del Cinquecento
by Agostino Ricchi
About the author
Born in Lucca on May 31, 1512, Agostino Ricchi was both a physician and a man of letters. Sources agree that he studied in Bologna, where he wrote his best-known comedy, I tre tiranni, while still young.
That play was staged in 1530 during the festivities surrounding the coronation of Charles V, and it brought him early notice. Later in life Ricchi built a career in medicine and was appointed papal physician, while also working with classical medical texts.
He died in Lucca on March 6, 1564. Though not a household name today, he stands out as a vivid figure of the Italian Renaissance: a learned doctor who also contributed to the lively world of sixteenth-century comedy.