Editing Proscenium (section)

==Confusion around Teatro Olimpico==
In this early modern recreation of a Roman theatre, confusion seems to have been introduced to the use of the revived term in Italian. This emulation of the Roman model extended to refer to the stage area as the "proscenium", and some writers have incorrectly referred to the theatre's [[scaenae frons]] as a proscenium, and have even suggested that the central archway in the middle of the scaenae frons was the inspiration for the later development of the full-size proscenium arch.<ref>Licisco Magagnato, "The Genesis of the ''Teatro Olimpico'', in ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'', Vol. XIV (1951), p. 215.</ref> There is no evidence at all for this assumption (indeed, contemporary illustrations of performances at the Teatro Olimpico clearly show that the action took place in front of the scaenae frons and that the actors were rarely framed by the central archway).{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

The Italian word for a scaenae frons is "''proscenio''," a major change from Latin.  One modern translator explains the wording problem that arises here: "[In this translation from Italian,] we retain the Italian ''proscenio'' in the text; it cannot be rendered ''proscenium'' for obvious reasons; and there is no English equivalent&nbsp;... It would also be possible to retain the classical ''frons scaenae''. The Italian "arco scenico" has been translated as "proscenium arch."<ref>Translator's note in Licisco Magagnato, "The Genesis of the ''Teatro Olimpico'', in ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtald Institutes'', Vol. XIV (1951), p. 213.</ref>

In practice, however, the stage in the Teatro Olimpico runs from one edge of the seating area to the other, and only a very limited framing effect is created by the [[coffered]] ceiling over the stage and by the partition walls at the corners of the stage where the seating area abuts the floorboards. The result is that in this theatre "the architectural spaces for the audience and the action&nbsp;... are distinct in treatment yet united by their juxtaposition; no proscenium arch separates them."<ref>Caroline Constant, "The Palladio Guide". Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press, 1985, p. 16.</ref>