Technological transfer: the importance of language in the tradition of competences. First hints on the lexicon of Pratica di Fabricar le Scene e le Machine ne’ Teatri di Nicola Sabbattini da Pesaro, Ravenna 1638

Abstract

In 1638 a smart architect from Pesaro, Nicolò Sabbatini, wrote and published in Ravenna the first and complete handbook on stagecraft, light technics and scenography ever seen before: the Pratica di fabbricare le Scene. In this book all the stage knowledge, including the designing perspective and the construction of the machines to lift or lower heavy stuffs for the representation, are illustrated and displayed very clearly. In this paper the attention will be focused on the content of the handbook itself: on the way in which the author transfers his – and his coevals’ – experience and competence on this practice, analysing in particular the language used and the terminology that has become – with the publication of this book – the elected , or better, the specialized terminology of stagecraft. The first results of the lexicological analysis will be illustrated herein.

In questo saggio vengono avviate alcune considerazioni sul tema del trasferimento tecnologico attraverso il testo scritto in età moderna. Si illustra inoltre la metodologia adottata per l’analisi lessicale del testo tecnico secentesco Pratica di Fabricar le Scene e le Machine ne’ Teatri, del quale si sta preparando l’edizione critica, facendo emergere le problematiche relative alla terminologia, al trattamento lessicografico e alla rilevanza dei disegni quali complemento indispensabile per la comprensione dello scritto.