Abstract

The article suggests that the name of Prospero, Shakespeare's duke of Milan, might have been inspired by Prospero Podiani, a humanist who lived in Perugia between the 16th and the 17th century. This hypothesis is not merely based on the homonymy of the two characters, but associates their name with their common passion for books and learning, and points to a thick net of historical circumstances that could have carried information about Podiani to the cultural and political circles of Elizabeth I's London.