THOUGH the importance of Sforza Oddi's three comedies in the history of the renaissance theatre has been indicated both by Sanesi and by Flamini, there is still no study devoted to him which provides a detailed biography of the author as well as an evaluation of his work. The following article attempts to analyze his plays more fully than has hitherto been done, and to estimate their significance in the history of Italian comedy. The biographical material has been collected and coördinated from a number of scattered writings dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. A certain amount of this material is new, and is the result of research in the libraries of Perugia and Parma. Nothing has been known before about Sforza Oddi's father, apart from his name. The date of the dramatist's first marriage, of the death of his first wife, the fact of his brother's death, and all information drawn from his will (a document previously unknown), and from the record of his doctorate, are mentioned here for the first time.