Virginia Ramponi-Andreini

Virginia Ramponi-Andreini, also known by her stage name "La Florinda" (1583 – c.1630) was a celebrated Italian actress and singer. She was known for her performances in commedia dell'arte plays, many of them written for her by her husband Giambattista Andreini, and for having created the title role in Claudio Monteverdi's lost opera L'Arianna. She was born in Northern Italy in either Milan or Genoa. The exact date and place of her death are unknown.

Born Virginia Andrea Ramponi, she has been described by her contemporaries in poems and letters as originating from either Milan or Genoa, depending on the source. The first secondary source to record her life in any detail was an entry in Francesco Bartoli's two volume biographical dictionary of Italian actors, Notizie istoriche de comici italiani, published in 1781. Little is known about her life prior to her marriage in 1601 to the Florentine actor and playwright Giambattista Andreini, the point at which her entry in Bartoli's dictionary begins.

Both Virginia and Giambattista Andreini had been actors in I Gelosi, a commedia dell'arte troupe managed by his parents, Isabella and Francesco Andreini. However, soon after their marriage, Gianmbattista formed his own troupe, I Fedeli (The Faithful), with Virginia performing in the prima donna inamorata roles and helping to manage the troupe. He also began writing his own plays. The first one was a tragedy entitled La Florinda. Virginia played the title role when it was performed in 1603 for the Accademia dei Spensierati (a learned society in Florence). The play received much praise and was published the following year, but there were so many misprints that Giambattista had all 500 copies destroyed. The first surviving copy of La Florinda is the 1606 edition, published in Milan where the Fedeli performed it for the city's Governor, Pedro Henriquez de Acevedo. It contains several poems written by members of the Spensierati in praise of the play, its author, and its leading lady, as well as a poem by Virginia in praise of her husband. The play became very successful over the years and was performed in both Northern Italian and French cities. In the 1606 edition, she was listed as "Verginia [sic] Andreini, detta Florinda" ("Virginia Andreini, called Florinda"). However, according to musicologist Emily Wilbourne it is unclear which came first—Virginia's stage name or the play which first brought her to public prominence. Giambattista went on to write several other commedia dell'arte plays in which she performed a character named Florinda including: Lo Schiavetto (The Slave Boy) 1612, La Turca (The Turkish Woman) 1616, Lelio Bandito (Lelio Banished) 1620, and Amor nello specchio (Love in the Mirror) 1622.

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