What is "tartaglia"

Tartaglia may refer to:

• Tartaglia (commedia dell'arte), Commedia dell'arte stock character
• Angelo Tartaglia (1350 or 1370–1421), Italian condottiero
• Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia (1499/1500–1557), Venetian mathematician and engineer
• Ivo Tartaglia (1880–1949), Yugoslav politician
• Marino Tartaglia (1894–1984), Croatian painter
• Warren Tartaglia (Walid al-Taha) (born 1944), American jazz musician
• Philip Tartaglia (born 1951), Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, Scotland
• Antonio Tartaglia (born 1968), Italian bobsledder
• John Tartaglia (born 1978), American singer, actor, dancer and puppeteer

Tartaglia is a dainty character in the Commedia dell'arte. He is farsighted and with a minor stutter (hence his name; cf. Spanish tartamudear), he is usually classed as one of the group of old characters (vecchio) who appears in many scenarios as one of the lovers ( innamorati). His social status varies; he is sometimes a bailiff, lawyer, notary or chemist. Dramatist Carlo Gozzi turned him into a statesman, and so he remained thereafter. Tartaglia wears a large felt hat, an enormous cloak, oversized boots, a long sword, a giant moustache and a cardboard nose. He usually represents the lower working class but at times the middle or upper class in the commedia dell'arte. In the opera Le maschere by Mascagni, one of the characters is Tartaglia, a stuttering servant.

Tartaglia is depicted as the voluble Sgt. Gino Tartaglia, played by Charles Calvert, in the radio crime drama Broadway Is My Beat. His characteristics formed the basis of Porky Pig.