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Burkhardt’s theatrical collection consists of several relics. It testifies the history of the Theatre from the sixteenth century to our days, including forty costumes, a collection of small terracotta statues, representing masks of the commedia dell’arte and of the folk theatre, puppets and marionettes (some of which are Chinese of the eighteenth century). There is a considerable number of drawings and prints (over three thousand pieces), stenographic sketches, portraits on oils or tempera (about 120) of nineteenth and twentieth century theatrical actors and authors. The collection was acquired through sales or donations by S.I.A.E., the Italian Society of Authors and Editors and since 1926 it is located in the fifteenth century Burcardo Palace, residence of Johannes Burckhardt, the papal master of ceremonies of that time. The prelate was known with the name of “episcopus argentinus” from the Latin name of his native city Argentoratum (the current Strasbourg). The name Argentina was initially used to call the tower of the Palace, now lost, and successively the entire area.