Reading Dante in Renaissance Italy: Florence, Venice and the 'Divine Poet'

Hardback

Main Details

Title Reading Dante in Renaissance Italy: Florence, Venice and the 'Divine Poet'
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Simon Gilson
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:446
Dimensions(mm): Height 235,Width 158
Category/GenreLiterature - history and criticism
Literary studies - general
Literary studies - classical, early and medieval
Literary studies - poetry and poets
ISBN/Barcode 9781107196551
ClassificationsDewey:851.1
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises; 4 Halftones, black and white

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 15 February 2018
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Simon Gilson's new volume provides the first in-depth account of the critical and editorial reception in Renaissance Italy, particularly Florence, Venice and Padua, of the work of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Gilson investigates a range of textual frameworks and related contexts that influenced the way in which Dante's work was produced and circulated, from editing and translation to commentaries, criticism and public lectures. In so doing he modifies the received notion that Dante and his work were eclipsed during the Renaissance. Central themes of investigation include the contestation of Dante's authority as a 'classic' writer and the various forms of attack and defence employed by his detractors and partisans. The book pays close attention not only to the Divine Comedy but also to the Convivio and other of Dante's writings, and explores the ways in which the reception of these works was affected by contemporary developments in philology, literary theory, philosophy, theology, science and printing.

Author Biography

Simon Gilson is Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Magdalen College. He has published extensively on Dante, Dante's reception, and the literary and philosophical culture of the Italian Renaissance. He is the author of Dante and Renaissance Florence (Cambridge, 2005) and has edited numerous volumes on science and literature, heresy and mysticism, and vernacular Aristotelianism.

Reviews

'... this analysis of Dante's fortuna in sixteenth-century Florence and Venice offers both a valuable guide and a stimulus for future research.' Martin Eisner, Renaissance Quarterly