Heading pragmatically towards theory: Luigi Riccoboni’s letters to Lodovico Antonio Muratori

Abstract

The letters of the actor and dramaturg Luigi Riccoboni, addressed to Muratori between 1725 and 1747 document the particular dialectic between the actor’s pragmatic approach to the world of research and literary production, and the priest’s reforming idealism. A story emerges, of exchange of ideas between the two men, punctuated by silences. These interchanges and silences will play a determining role in the process of intellectual emancipation of Riccoboni as theoretician.