‘Suspend the Sense’

Abstract This article explores the relationship in the Early Modern period between visual culture, spectacle, and technology. It investigates the processes that led machinery to become an essential part of the scenic discourse of the time, taking as reference Il Cannocchiale per la Finta Pazza , a unique document produced in 1641 by the Venetian opera industry and which, to date, has received only scant scholarly attention. It studies the information the manuscript provides on how theater engineering acquired a performative value when employed to affect the audience’s sensory experience. The methodological approach takes account of modern performative studies and the ‘sensory turn’ and reflects on how technology became an integral part of consumption of modern spectacle which, when viewed from the physical, social, and intellectual perspectives, constitutes a complex sensory space.