«Per allevare li giovani nel timor di Dio e nelle lettere»: arti performative, educazione e controllo al Collegio Nazareno di Roma nel primo Seicento

In the vast landscape of the history of the performing arts in baroque Rome, theatre and other entertainments in the context of the colleges take on primary importance, not only for the quality of the results – often at the level of productions in theatres and noble palaces – but above all for the role they played, beginning with the regulations in the Jesuit “Ratio studiorum”, in the moral and cultural education of college students. This study presents a preliminary section of a larger research project based on the documents from the archive of the Collegio Nazareno, aiming at reconstructing the material history of the performing arts’ practice in the college. Through an examination of accounting records and regulations regarding the ceremonial protocol for celebrations, academic gatherings, and ‘comedie’ (theatrical performances), the essay proposes a reflection on the relationship between theatre and the mechanisms of control governing the college.