If there is a book that you would like added to the list, please email me.

Andrews, Richard, Scripts and Scenarios, the Performance of Comedy in Renaissance Italy, Cambridge University Press, 1993

Beaumont, Cyril, The History of Harlequin, London, Beaumont, 1926.

Belloni, Mario, Maschere a Venezia, History and Technique, Arcari Editore, Treviso, Italy, 2000. Paperback, gorgeous color photos and prints, text in four languages.

Bentley, Eric, The Genius of the Italian Theatre, Mentor, 1964

Bucknell, Peter, Commedia dell'Arte at the Court of Louis XIV, London, Stainer & Bell, 1980. Thumbnail sketches and patterns for soft sculpture dolls.

Boughner, Daniel, The Braggart In Renaissance Comedy, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1954. Lots of Capitano.

Cairns, Christopher, The Commedia dell´Arte, from the Renaissance to Dario Fo, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989

Craig, Edward Gordon, "The Characters of the Commedia dell'Arte", The Mask, January 1912. Article.

Dick, Kay, Pierrot, London, Hutchinson, 1960. Premise is a little silly but nice sense of evolution of style & character through 500 years.

Duchartre, Pierre Louis, The Italian Comedy, London, Harrap, 1929, reprinted New York, Dover, 1966. This is "The Bible" you will return to it repeatedly; lots of wonderful illustrations.

Gordon, Mel, (ed.), Lazzi, New York, PAJ Publications, 1983. Some good stuff; Pedantic.

Gozzi, Carlo, Five tales for the Theatre, Bermel & Emery, University of Chicago, 1989

Green, Martin & Swna, John The Triump of Pierrot, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986

Griffiths, David, Flavio’s Disgrace, a Masked Commedia, Collins Educational, 1993

Heck, Thomas F., Commedia dell'Arte, a Guide to the Primary and secondary Literature, New York, Garland, 1988.

Herman, George, Carnival of Saints, a Novel of Renaissance Italy, Ballantine Books, NY, 1994. Something different; a fun novel, speculating on the origins of Commedia, by the author of the modern two-act play A Company of Wayward Saints.

Herrick, Marvin, Italian Comedy in the Renaissance, Illini Books, 1961

Lawner, Lynne, Harlequin on the Moon, Commedia dell’ Arte and the Visual Arts, Harry N. Adams, Inc., NY, 1998. A gorgeous coffee-table book: reprints of tons of commedia subject matter, paintings and illustrations from the 16th Century through Picasso and David Hockney.

Lea, K.M., Italian Popular Comedy, Oxford, 1934, reprinted Oxford, Russell & Russell, 1962.

Nicoll, Allardyce, Masks, Mimes and Miracles, London, Harrap, 1931, reprinted Cooper Square, 1963. Sort of dated, light on commedia.

Nicoll, Allardyce, The World of Harlequin, Cambridge, 1963, reprinted 1986. Better still a little pedantic.

Niklaus, Thelma, Harlequin or the Rise & Fall of a Bergamask Rouge, New York, George Braziller, 1956, reprinted as Harlequin Phoenix, Oxford, Bodley Head, 1965.

Oreglia, Giacomo, The Commedia dell'Arte, London, Methuen, 1968, New York, Hill & Wang, 1968. Good text, dialogue and illustrations not found elsewhere.

Pietropaolo, Domenico, The Science of Buffoonery: Theory and History of the Commedia dell´Arte, Dovehouse Editions, 1989

Richards and Richards, The Commedia dell´Arte, a Documentary History, Basil Bllackwell, 1990

Rolfe, Bari, Commedia dell'Arte: A Scene Study Book, California, Persona Books, 1977.

Rolfe, Bari, Farces Italian Style, California, Persona Books, 1978. Translations of 17th & 20th century French pieces plus Bari's adaptation of a Scala senario. Lots of dialogue.

Rudlin, John, Commedia dell'Arte; An Actor's Handbook, London, New York, Routledge, 1994. The latest, a practical approach; well organized; some strange conclusions; could become another commedia Bible.

Rudlin, John and Olly Crick, Commedia dell'arte: a Resource Book for Troupes, Routledge, 2001.

Sand, Maurice, The History of the Harlequinade, London, Martin Secker, 1915, reprinted as The History Harlequin, Oxford, Blom, 1958. A watershed work.

Salerno, Henry F. (trans.), Flaminio Scala's Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte, New York University, 1967. Lots of material, complex plots, little lazzi.

Scott, Virginia, The Commedia dell´Arte in Paris 1644-1697, University Press of Virginia, 1990

Storey, Robert F., Pierrot, a Critical History of a Mask, Princeton, NJ, 1978.

Smith, Winifred, The Commedia dell'Arte, New York, 1912.

Smith, Winifred, Italian Actors of the Renaissance, Coward-McCann, New York, 1930.

Southern, Richard, The Seven Ages of Theatre, Hill & Wang Dramabooks, 1963

Steward, James Christen, The Mask of Venice, Masking, Theater, & Identity in the Art of Tiepolo & His Time, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, 1996 Catalogue of exhibits includes sepia toned reproductions of many wonderful paintings by Giovanni Dominico Tiepolo, his father, Giovani Battista Tiepolo, Pietro Longhi and many others.