“Della Sapienza” Theater In the second half of the 18th century, among the nine Theaters existing in Perugia, the Sapienza Vecchia bore the name and the role of the Teatro Nazionale dell’Accademia di Belle Lettere ed Arti, distinguishing itself for its rich annual repertory of opera and prose works, both Italian and foreign. Hosted in the monumental building of the Sapienza, which in 1362 was the first University College in Italy, the theater probably hosted the first acting of the young Carlo Goldoni—who followed his father, personal practitioner of a noble Perugian family—in the role of Mirandolina. The theater underwent some restructuring work in the first half of the 19th century that saw the building of a new wing on the northern side to host the large stage and scenic machinery, reproducing the same typology as the large lyric theaters like La Scala of Milan on a smaller scale. At that time an elegant gallery was built together with a gas illumination system. The decorations of the Audience Hall and of the Sala Rossa—Red Hall—next to it were commissioned to the Perugian painters Lemmo Rossi Scotti and Matteo Tassi.