Judah Sommo

Judah ben Isaac Sommo (also known as Leone de Sommi Portaleone), born in Mantua, Italy, was a playwright, theater director, and author of Hebrew and Italian poetry. His five-act Tsaḥut bediḥuta de-kiddushin (An Eloquent Marriage Farce), is the earliest surviving Hebrew drama. Sommo wrote and staged plays for the Gonzaga court theater and became renowned throughout Europe as a dramatist and director, pioneering new forms of stage lighting. He was also active in the Jewish community, and he helped Azariah de’ Rossi publish Me’or ‘enayim (Light of the Eyes). Sommo was a prolific writer; however, eleven of sixteen volumes of his writings were lost in the Turin library fire of 1904. Among his greatest works is Dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche (Dialogues on the Art of the Stage), which contains an important discussion about Renaissance theater.