Located at Museo di Sant’Agostino.

A little puppet theatre of the Nineteenth Century, with its proscenium, sceneries (38 complete scenery with murals and wings), furniture and property, 91 marionettes (40 cm. high), a rich dressing compartment (costumes, shoes, hats), 30 scripts.

Considering the characteristics of these marionettes, feet and hands made of lead, they supposedly originated in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia (the northeast part of Italy) while a lot of sceneries are reminiscent of the work by scenographers and painters who worked for the La Scala Theatre in Milan.

The little dimension of the theatre and the marionettes let us suppose that they were built for a private theatre, by request of some noble and rich man. The related documents, especially the scripts, some of the costumes and properties, names of theatres and managers, proves that the little theatre was used, with managers and puppet masters, in Modena, Bologna and other places nearby.

The little theatre was bought at the end of the Nineteenth Century by Vittorio Rissone, father of Giuditta and Checco “He bought it – as Checco Rissone used to say – thinking that one day, considering our family tradition, one of his offspring might, by need or choice, become a puppet master.” This didn’t happen. In 1982 Checco Rissone and Emi, daughter of Giuditta Rissone and Vittorio De Sica, decided to give it to the Museo Biblioteca dell'Attore.