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From the moment of her spectacular death on the scaffold, the story of Mary Queen of Scots became nothing short of a sensation across Europe. She was executed on 8 February 1587, and her death was the climax of a captivity that lasted over eighteen years. Shortly after the event, Federico Della Valle, one of Italy’s most accomplished dramatists of the time, composed La reina di Scotia (The Queen of Scots), a tragedy depicting the final hours of the Scottish queen’s life.

With its restrained tone, streamlined action, and refined poetic language, The Queen of Scots ranks among the very best of early modern Italian drama. In this book, Fabio Battista provides an English-language annotated edition of Della Valle’s work, accompanied by a comprehensive introduction exploring the fictional afterlife of Mary Queen of Scots from the early modern period to today. The volume also includes the English translation of a widely circulated letter detailing the queen’s momentous execution. Made available to an English-speaking audience for the first time, this tragedy is the earliest dramatic reworking of the death of Mary Queen of Scots in a modern vernacular, spearheading a tradition that endures to this day.