Miguel Venegas and the earliest Jesuit theater : choruses for tragedies in sixteenth-century Europe / by Margarida Miranda.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Miguel Venegas of �Avila -- Miguel Venegas : the master and the Jesuit -- The Alcal�a legacy : from grammar to the Bible, from rhetoric to theater -- Miguel Venegas and the dramatic tradition in Spain -- School theater in Coimbra during the time of Miguel Venegas : the Col�egio das Artes -- The literary works Miguel Venegas produced in Portugal (1559-62) -- Drama sacrum et Latinum : the Tragoedia sacra ex 3� Lb. Regum Cap. 18-20-21 and the beginning of a cycle of tragic plays -- Optime more tragico canebantur : Francisco de Santa Mar�ia and the dramatic choruses of Miguel Venegas, 1559-62.

"In Miguel Venegas and the Earliest Jesuit Theater, Margarida Miranda takes a fresh look at the origins of Jesuit theater and provides a detailed account of the life and work of Miguel Venegas (1529-after 1588) within the Iberian tradition. The book details Venegas's role as the founder of Jesuit theater in Portugal and the creator of a new musical genre, choruses for tragedies, which was gradually codified and emulated by successive generations of Jesuits. Venegas's Latin tragedies in turn provided the model for regular dramatic activities in the global network of Jesuit schools, including, significantly, the first tragedies to be staged in Rome: Saul Gelboeus and Achabus, both of which had originally been performed in Coimbra in the mid-sixteenth century"--