The term animation theatre refers to all forms of live performance involving objects and figures that are animated artificially, in order to imitate the movements of living beings. To ‘animate’ means to bring to life.
Animation theatre is, first and foremost, theatre. Each genre has its own history, its own rules and therefore its own language.
Furthermore, as we are dealing with cultures and not countries, different puppet traditions exist in Italy (for example: Neapolitan, Emilian and Bergamascan), just as there are three types of pupi (Neapolitan, Palermitan and Catanese).

A brief outline of ancient theatre
Puppets and marionettes have existed since antiquity, long before the advent of actors’ theatre. Their origin and function were religious and they were used in the temples to recount fables: in this case, the marionettes represented gods, demigods and men. The oldest objects that we know of date back to the 8th and 7th centuries BC and were discovered in Greece.
The necessity of having objects at hand that confirmed faith meant that statues of divinities became marionettes, with strings and joints to render the process of faith tangible and visible. The god inhabited the statues and moved them.
These figures were often used in fertility rites.
Herodotus attests to this use in Egypt, especially the extraordinary statues of Daedalus, which were so similar to living beings that there is good reason to regard them as the ancestors of marionettes.
At the time of Xenophon, who makes reference to puppet shows in his Symposium, puppeteering was already considered to be a true profession.
Greek and Roman literature contains quotations that refer to statues or statuettes moved by strings, therefore ancient marionettes which, in addition to articulated arms, often had moveable legs, necks, eyes and even fingers.
It is certain that Plato was familiar with puppet theatre and it can be assumed that this type of performance was widespread and well known at that time.

Puppet and marionette theatre in the Middle Ages
If, as we have said, the presence of puppets and marionettes is documented in the classical age, there is an almost total lack of information from the medieval period.
Puppet and marionette players can be considered a part of the larger tradition of street performers, along with jugglers, balladeers, acrobats, mimes, animal trainers and other artists.
Unfortunately, the only two surviving testimonies of puppet shows in the Middle Ages are two 14th century miniatures, preserved in the Bodleian Library of Oxford, which accompany the work by Jean de Grise, Li romans du bon roi Alexandre: here, the puppet theatre is distinguished by two small towers at the sides, decorative particulars which delimit the scenic space and which probably gave rise to the term castello (castle), still used today to denote the structure that houses the puppet theatre in Italian, French (castellet) and Spanish (castillo).
To find the term burattino (puppet), as we understand it today, it would be necessary to wait until 1652, when Domenico Ottonelli published his tract Della Christiana moderazione del teatro (Of the Christian Moderation of the Theatre).

La sacra rappresentazione
The sacre rappresentazioni (Holy Representations), re-enactments of biblical stories and the lives of the saints, organised by the confraternities of arts and trades, have taken place in churches since the end of the 10th century. The productions involve the entire population, who actively contribute to the construction and realisation of the performance. The purpose is twofold: to create a sense of belonging to the religious institution, while maintaining one’s own autonomy, and to spread awareness of the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints.
Furthermore, negative characters began to appear as a contrast to the positive religious figures: these devils, ghosts, dead people and imaginary animals would later acquire comic value.

The Festa delle Marie and the origin of the term marionette
The most accredited etymological explanation of the term marionette dates back to the Middle Ages and is believed to be connected to a historical event that actually occurred.
In 944, in Venice, twelve pretty girls were abducted by raiding Saracen pirates as they made their way in procession to the Church of Santa Maria della Salute to be wed. The local youths reacted immediately, setting off in pursuit in a large fleet of boats; they soon caught up with the pirates and managed to free the kidnapped brides.
In memory of this event, the Festa della Marie (Festival of the Marys) was established in the city; for the occasion, the community provided the dowry for twelve poor girls of high morals, so that they could be wed with greater economic dignity.
However, as time went by, the festival became more and more onerous for the Most Serene Republic’s coffers; furthermore, the selection of the brides-to-be caused uproar and fierce discussions. The number of girls was reduced from twelve to four, then to three, until they were eventually replaced by mechanical wooden figures with moveable limbs called ‘marione’ (big Marys), which were carried in procession through the city every year.
Miniature copies of the marione were produced on the occasion of the festival and then sold on stalls: it is these small reproductions that gave rise to the name marionette (that is, little Mary).

Between the Middle Ages and the Commedia dell’Arte
In the transitional period between the Middle Ages and the birth of the Commedia dell’Arte, where historiography struggles to find points of reference, entertainment had already begun to lay the foundations for the great event that would become the ‘Comedy of Art’.
The medieval society is characterised, at the lowest level, by populations with little attachment to their own lands or ethnic groups, given that the land belonged to the nobility at that time.
This led to greater degree of mobility: it was necessary to move around in order to survive. This ‘humanity in movement’ was composed of vagrants, entertainers and pilgrims, who often travelled in groups.
From the year 1000 to the end of the Middle Ages, there was a great feeling of spiritual abandonment. It was during this period that groups of heretics started to appear, along with minstrels, actors, acrobats and balladeers. Puppeteers were often associated with this category of charlatans (as they were known at that time), and endured, in the Renaissance and with the Counter Reformation, the same reprimands.
However, these artist would distinguish themselves from the mendicants and beggars in the piazzas and late medieval markets.
Their street performances were known as baggatelle (bagatelles), a term which at that time referred to shows featuring puppets, jugglers, conjurers and, in general, manipulators, that is, artists who used their hands in their performances.
Masks, which in the past had been primarily used in carnival rites, were now used all year round by performers.
This method of telling stories through acting was a triumph of theatre, as the objectivity of the mask left no room for subjectivity. The actor represented a category of characters. It would favour the development of the Commedia dell’Arte and lead to an increase in the number of characters, each one representing a part of the whole society.
It was in this same period that the nobility, the clergy and the aristocracy felt the need to establish their own cultural institutions. Thus the Accademie (Academies) were formed, organisations aimed at the production of a culture that was functional to their own requirements. It was the birth of the Accademie that led to the endorsement of the dichotomy between high culture and low culture, which was partly diminished by the French Revolution.
The puppeteers were the only ones from the variegated world of vagrants to be involved in the Academies, but they also continued to perform outside this sphere. Research over the last few decades has brought to light evidence of a considerable number of marionettes that were still performing in the streets and piazzas, despite the fact that they, like the companies of actors, had been invited to perform in mansions and palaces.

The Commedia dell’Arte
The Commedia dell’Arte originated in the Venetian Republic, where it was possible to stage profane performances without violating the prohibitions of the Church, and officially developed during the first half of the 16th century: the document that confirms its birth is from 1545, a contract stipulated between a group of actors with the aid of a notary that obliges them to work together for a determinate period of time.
Given the difficulties encountered in Italy, the birthplace of the Commedia dell’Arte, artists often chose the path of emigration and travelled to the four corners of Europe.
Between the second half of the 16th century and the first decades of the 17th century, the Commedia dell’Arte made a name for itself all over Europe, drawing considerable attention from all social classes. The masks, fixed characters with extremely typical traits, corresponded to the various social strata, with the exception of the dominant classes: the nobility and the clergy.
Arlecchino (Harlequin) represents the lowest category of society and plays the role of the servant; Brighella, his sidekick, plays a higher role (butler, cook, innkeeper, etc); il Dottore (the Doctor), a satire on graduates that serve power, is a physician, a lawyer, a minister; il Capitano (the Captain) represents the military class; Pantalone (Pantaloon) is an old merchant, miserly and libidinous; Tartaglia, a lawyer or notary, is characterised by his incessant stutter which, at times, is considered to be an expedient that gives him the time to think about how to dupe the next person. In 1609, the mask of Pulcinella (Punch) appeared for the first time in the Theatre of San Giorgio de’ Genovesi in Naples. The character was played by Captain Silvio Fiorillo and would later be made succesful by Andrea Calcese.
As the number of companies of actors performing the Commedia dell’Arte increased, so did the amount of puppet and marionette players who, very soon, would also be found in the rest of Europe.
It was in the mid-17th century that, in Italy, puppet and marionette theatre began to assume the characteristics of a tout court spectacle, which was no longer to be seen only in the street.
Up to the end of the 18th century, the musical repertoire was fundamental to this genre of entertainment and this is the period that saw the birth of the other great event that marked the path and the history of entertainment in the 17th century: the melodrama.
This musical genre also accommodated marionette theatre, which lent itself with great ease to scenery changes and to developing the mechanisms that would become typical of baroque theatre.
Venice became the capital of the spectacle. The birth of numerous public theatres favoured the creation of a new cultural environment, providing a theatre with less censorship and more freedom than elsewhere.
We have reports of various theatres where works for marionettes were staged, even in Rome. These were primarily theatres in private houses, where the lords would invite the artists and watch the performances with their families and friends.
The great success of marionettes in the 17th and 18th centuries thus actively contributed to the development and diffusion of baroque theatre.

Italians abroad
Puppet and marionette players were often considered little more than beggars by the authorities and this prejudice made it difficult to obtain authorisations for performances; if we add to this the Church’s fear that these spontaneous gatherings led to idleness and distracted the people from the divine offices, it becomes clear why our artists could be found scattered all over the continent, where they had greater freedom to practice their art.
Thus, puppeteers began to appear in Spain, England, France, but also in Germany, Russia and Scandinavia. In all these countries, the use of typical Italian masks became more widespread; they were often adopted by local animators and developed with respect to the Commedia dell’Arte.

The crisis of the Commedia dell’Arte
In the first half of the 18th century, the Commedia dell’Arte fell into crisis and an out-and-out reform began, brought about by Carlo Goldoni; in order to understand the reasons for this decline, it is necessary to consider its evolution by dividing the French and Italian scenes.
In Italy, the Accademie were born with the Counter Reformation, as a contrast to the Commedia dell’Arte.
In France, the great success of the Italian comics began in 1570, to such an extent that Paris became the true capital of the Commedia dell’Arte. Subsequent dramaturgical innovations dictated new rules that were destined to plunge the Italian companies into crisis.
In Italy, the masks of the Commedia dell’Arte were surpassed long before the arrival of Napoleon. It was a gradual process, and the Jacobin decrees definitively sanctioned that which had already been in action for some time.
We can speak of continuity with regard to the Commedia dell’Arte but not of its end, because a dialectal theatre was slowly developing that could already boast of authors in the 17th century and which was definitively consecrated by Goldoni.
The elements of the Commedia dell’Arte persist and undoubtedly constitute a largely unfathomed legacy of our cultural history and a vitally important link between the origins of our theatre and the present.

Puppets and marionettes in the 18th century
The transition from the mask of the Commedia dell’Arte to the new mask occurred in a straightforward manner: Brighella often remained, like Zanni before him (who, in his capacity as proto-actor, combines his art with the selling of products, which are often touted as miraculous, and tries to win over the public in the piazza) and Harlequin was replaced by the local mask.
This change took place suddenly in the puppet companies, whereas in some marionette companies it evolved more slowly.
In the 18th century, the concept of the ‘evening’ began to emerge in the marionette theatre, that is to say, a show with an entrance fee that was open to nobles and to people who were able to pay. The evening consisted of a comedy, dancing, comic and musical interludes, games of skill and a farce finale.
In the puppet theatre, we do not have the element of seeing as much as we have the element of hearing; witticisms were used more frequently, plays on popular stories, directly connected to the Commedia dell’Arte.
This type of theatre was based mainly on speech and was therefore more exposed to the perils of censorship, as it helped to disseminate ideas and was therefore more troublesome.
The puppet theatre, with respect to its marionette counterpart, was composed of a larger number of companies. It was more widespread, and open-air shows were more common than performances in theatres, where puppets did not begin to work until the 19th century.
Towards the end of the 1700s, Napoleon prohibited the masks of the Commedia dell’Arte and everything else that could be associated with the ancien régime.
Therefore, new masks without masks were created, characters that individualised certain sections of society as well as their predecessors had done.
These new characters would have regional importance, or rather, they would circulate within well-defined linguistic areas. In Bologna, Fagiolino appeared; in the Duchy of Modena, Luigi Campogalliani introduced Sandrone; in Rome, Rugantino and Cassandrino emerged.
At the end of the 1700s, Gerolamo was born in Genoa, thanks to two puppeteers named Sales and Bellone who later moved to Caglianetto, in Piedmont, where their character changed his name to Gianduia.

Marionette and puppet theatres in the Napoleonic era
The Napoleonic invasion and the consequent reunification of Italy under the control of the French emperor represents a brief, but extremely important period in the history of our country. The economic and political system was affected by the innovative force of the Enlightenment and Jacobin ideas that were characteristic of the revolution; the theatre also underwent a radical transformation, which did not only involve the drama companies, but also the puppet and marionette companies. The reunification, first of all, led to the breaking down of political borders and therefore allowed the companies greater mobility within the new empire.
The negative aspect was that theatre censorship originated with Napoleon.
Now, if on one hand this could be considered a restriction of the companies’ freedom to perform, on the other it meant that more information was available about them, allowing us to study their movements and to construct a chronicle, drawn from the archives of the prefectures which, from that time onwards, would keep a watchful eye on the movements of these artists.
Performances and entertainment were generally used to spread the ideals of the revolution, a sharp contrast to the restrictions which, until that time, had been imposed on the population: for the first time in history, the people had the illusion of being the real political protagonist.
Thus, the puppet is the mirror of its audience, interpreting its tastes, behaviour, language and aspirations.
The theatre companies, which had previously been accustomed to wandering the length and breadth of Italy and Europe, adopted new masks and travelled less, with the result that they were forced to add new works to their repertoires, so that they were able to present new productions to the public every day.
Thus, a series of techniques were developed to adapt the most popular theatrical scripts for the specific use of puppet and marionette players.
Ideas were mostly drawn from the genres of prose and melodrama, but inspiration was also taken from fiction: novels, stories and popular tales.
This process of extending the repertoire would continue after the fall of Napoleon, drawing inspiration from the stories of the saints and the Old and New Testaments.
If this meant that the puppet companies had to have at least thirty puppets to stage between 100-150 productions, it was a very different story for the marionette companies, with the relative scenery and costumes for each presentation and a vast assortment of secondary props.
It is for all these reasons that puppet companies, which were usually composed of two people, could take their shows to the smallest towns, while for marionette players this was not possible, given the high operating cost of the company; thus, they tended to perform in more populated areas, where they often made use of a theatre building.
It is in this way that the structural dichotomy between puppets and marionettes is created. The first are more suited to rural areas, the second are more appropriate for urban centres.
To summarise, the Napoleonic invasion laid the foundations for the complete regeneration of Italian theatre, involving all genres: with regard to puppet and marionette theatre, this period represented the beginning of a new era which would continue with the process of reunification.