Abstract

The history of theatre is a very good point of view from which to understand the history of wine. The choice of using plays as the main source for this study derives from factual data: In the Modern Age the theatre was one of the major places of “socialization,” where customs and traditions of the time emerged. This central role is even more amplified during the sixteenth century when the so-called “commercial theater” was born, which was followed not only by the royal court but also by a paying public. If oenological quotes found in plays are more rich and detailed than in the past, it means that a particular type of wine had a specific meaning in the quote and this was well understood by the reader of the time. This study aims to investigate, through oenological quotes found in different plays, the evolution and the persistence of the taste of wine in Europe during the Modern Age, in order to find the most significant models of the oenological evolution and the reasons for the success of a kind of wine.