SCAMMACCA, OBTENSIO. – Jesuit, dramatist, born at Lentini in 1562, died at Palermo on 16 February 1648.
After studying jurisprudence at Catania and Messina, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1582, preceded there by his brother Giuseppe, and spent his entire life teaching, especially literature.
He is one of the leading representatives of Jesuit theatre, with his 46 tragedies (of which 2 remain unpublished), distributed in 14 volumes: Tragedie sacre e morali del p. Hortensio S., raccolte dall'ab. don Martino La Farina (Palermo 1632–48). The subjects are highly varied, drawn, in the sacred tragedies, from the lives and legends of the saints and from the history of the Old and New Testaments (Il parto della Vergine, Il Cristo morto, Il Cristo risuscitato, L'Eupolio Tommaso Moro, Giustino, Agata, etc.); in these he shows himself more original, is less influenced by theories of classical drama, and comes closer to the sacre rappresentazioni. In the moral tragedies, he depends too clearly, above all, on Greek tragedies, with Euripides predominating (Amirò, Goffredo, Orlando Furioso, Crisanto, Boemondo, Demetria in Trebisonda, etc.). Although his aim, like that of the Jesuit college theatre as a whole, was to edify and admonish the spectators, S.’s tragedies nevertheless contain passages and scenes of comic realism, which willingly dwell on details of everyday life, as well as genuinely plastic and refined touches of singular effectiveness.