This paper examines the representation of place deixis in the Italian grammars of the 16th century, and deals especially with the role of the pronoun cotesto and the simplifications of the original ternary system. An analysis of the grammars is supplemented with remarks on the usage of pronouns in theatre texts. Examples of the simplification of the Tuscan system can be found in both the grammars and the theatre corpus (and are mostly motivated by the speaker’s origin). It is argued that similarity between the dialects and literary language facilitated the transfer of spatial relations from these dialects to Italian.