Giovan Maria Cecchi (1517–1587) was the most prolific and popular of sixteenth-century Florentine daramatists. His best-known play, L'Assiuolo (The Horned Owl), brings to the stage the amorous adventure of two students at the university of Pisa who fall in love with the same married lady. Through a servant's ruse they both succeed in gratifying their senses and in establishing a love affair that will see them through their undergraduate career.