Una serata in casa del nobile Buoncompagno di Marcantonio della Gazzaia

The night of the 8th February 1542, in the house of the nobleman Buoncompagno di Marcantonio della Gazzaia, in Siena, a play-acting took place at a time when such performances had been forbidden by local authorities. The following day, an investigation carried out by the Siena chief of Justice resulted in the sentencing of all the people who played in, or assisted to, the comedy. Marin Držić was among them. But which was the comedy staged that night? I suggest that it could be Aurelia, a comedy which lay forgotten for centuries until 1938, when a scholar found it in Capetown. A re-reading of the well known episode in Držić's biography against the backdrop of this play puts his personality, as well as the cultural role he played as Magnifico Rettore in Siena, in a new light.