Fenomen renesansowego teatru kreteńskiego

Abstract

The island of Crete has experienced three long periods of foreign occupation in medieval and modern times. The occupation by the Most Serene Republic of Venice was the longest and most important considering the contacts at the level of higher culture. The situation which had developped by the end of the Venetian period of Cretan history is called Cretan Renaissance. The impact of Venetian culture on Crete was neither immediate nor decisive. We can observe that the symbiosis of the two nations produced a common Veneto-Cretan culture which is confirmed by many foreign travelers. One of the achievements of Cretan writers in the Venetian period was the creation of very interesting M odem Greek theatre. The Cretan dramas, which include 8 preserved pieces and 18 interludes, are written in rhyming couplets of political verse, all of them have their own (mostly Italian) models but the Cretan writers changed them in a specific way. The end of this period took place with the fall of Candia (Iraklio) in 1669.