ORTENSO SCAMMACCA. - Jesuit, playwright, b. at Lentini in 1562, d. at Palermo on 16 Feb. 1648.
After studying law at Catania and Messina, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1582, where he had been preceded by his brother Giuseppe, and spent his entire life teaching, especially the humanities.
He is one of the leading representatives of Jesuit drama with his 46 tragedies (2 of which remain unpublished) collected in 14 volumes: *Tragedie sacre e morali del p. Horstino S., raccolte dall'abb. don Martino La Farina* (Palermo 1632-48). The subjects are quite varied: the sacred tragedies draw on the lives and legends of the saints and the history of the Old and New Testaments (*Il parto della Vergine*, *Il Cristo morto*, *Il Cristo risuscitato*, *L'Epilogo Tommaso Moro*, *Giustino*, *Agata*, etc.); in these he shows greater originality, being less influenced by theories on classical drama and more akin to sacred representations. For the moral tragedies, he clearly depends above all on Greek tragedy, with a predominance of Euripides (*Amira*, *Goffredo*, *Orlando Furioso*, *Crisanto*, *Boemondo*, *Demetria in Trebisonda*, etc.). While his aim, like that of his Jesuit colleagues, was to edify and instruct the audience, Scammacca’s tragedies do not lack moments and scenes of comic realism, indulging willingly in details of everyday life, and displaying truly vivid and refined traits of singular efficacy.