Shakespeare lettore di Alberti?

This article focuses on themes present in both Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Alberti’s Momo; these subjects were widespread in Renaissance culture, but both authors use them in the same way. Was Shakespeare familiar with Alberti’s works? He may have been, if we consider the possible role of Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinzio, a well-known author in Elizabethan England; his work in Ferrara concerned the circulation of Alberti’s thought. Furthermore, Alberti’s Opuscoli latini were well known in Europe in the sixteenth century, thanks to Cosimo Bartoli’s translation. Perhaps there is only a certain coincidence between Shakespeare and Alberti’s thought, but the same vocabulary is employed to describe, for instance, characters and their nature. This study is a sort of inlay, detecting points of agreement between Shakespeare and Alberti on important subjects such as mirrors, theatre, hiding, shadows, and court intrigues.