A rare treatise, first and only edition. L'animo eroe represents the most ambitious outcome of the historiographical and ideological interests of Matteo Noris, a prominent figure in Venetian Baroque theater. Dedicated to Prince Ferdinando de' Medici (1663–1713), already the playwright's patron during the Florentine performances of Il Greco in Troia, the volume is a compendium of "historical acts of the most famous ancients"—Greek and Latin—collected in fifty medallions of philosophers, kings, and statesmen, whose deeds offer exemplary models of virtue and politics, whether positive or admonishing. Positioned in the noble humanist tradition of the biography of illustrious figures, Noris ideally engages with a trend that extends from Boccaccio and Plutarch to Giovio, Bellori, and Crassus, intertwining the lessons of history with the moral and civic demands of his time.