Reconsidering Boccaccio: Medieval Contexts and Global Intertexts

by Olivia Holmes (Editor), Dana Stewart (Editor)

Overview

Reconsidering Boccaccio highlights the great Florentine writer Giovanni Boccaccio's remarkable achievements in the fourteenth century as a cultural mediator; his exceptional social, geographic, and intellectual range; and the influence of his legacy on numerous cultural networks.

Grounded in Boccaccio's own writings, Reconsidering Boccaccio brings a variety of methodologies and critical approaches to the works of one of the 'three crowns' of Italian literature. Containing essays by scholars not only of Italian literature, but also history, law, classics, and Middle Eastern literature, this collection is part of a vital movement to open up a dialogue among researchers in various areas of study that touch on the works of Boccaccio. The volume highlights the necessity of a technical and historical framework when approaching Boccaccio studies, while also shedding new light on the lives of women and their role in the reception of Boccaccio's works.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487501785
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	05/29/2018
Series:	Toronto Italian Studies
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Olivia Holmes is a professor of English and Medieval Studies in the Department of English and the Center for Medieval Studies and Renaissance at Binghamton University.
Dana E. Stewart is an associate professor of Italian and Medieval Studies in the Department of Romance Languages and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Binghamton University.

Table of Contents

Olivia Holmes and Dana Stewart (Binghamton University), Introduction

I MATERIAL CONTEXTS

1. K. P. Clarke (University of York), "Text and (Inter)Face: The Catchwords in Boccaccio’s Autograph of the Decameron"

2. Rhiannon Daniels (University of Bristol), "Reading Boccaccio’s Paratexts: Dedications as Thresholds between Worlds"

II SOCIAL CONTEXTS: FRIENDSHIP

3. Jason Houston (University of Oklahoma), "Boccaccio on Friendships (Theory and Practice)"

4. Todd Boli (Independent Scholar), "Among Boccaccio’s Friends: A Profile of Mainardo Cavalcanti"

III SOCIAL CONTEXTS: GENDER, MARRIAGE, AND THE LAW

5. Alessia Ronchetti (University of Cambridge), "Reading Like a Woman: Gendering Compassion in the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta"

6. Grace Delmolino (Columbia University), "The Economics of Conjugal Debt from Gratian’s Decretum to Decameron 2.10: Boccaccio, Canon Law, and the Loss of Interest in Sex"

7. Sara Diaz (Fairfield University), "Authority and Misogamy in Boccaccio’s Trattatello in laude di Dante"

8. Mary Anne Case (University of Chicago Law School), "What Turns on Whether Women are Human for Boccaccio and Christine de Pizan?"

IV POLITICAL AND AUTHORIAL CONTEXTS: ON FAMOUS WOMEN

9. Elizabeth Casteen (Binghamton University), "On She-Wolves and Famous Women: Boccaccio, Politics, and the Neapolitan Court"

10. Kevin Brownlee (University of Pennsylvania), "Christine Transforms Boccaccio: Gendered Authorship in the De mulieribus claris and the Cité des Dames"

11. Lori Walters (Florida State University), "Reading like a Frenchwoman: Christine de Pizan’s Treatment of Boccaccio’s Johanna I and Andrea Acciaiu"

V LITERARY INTERTEXTS

12. Franklin Lewis (University of Chicago), "A Persian in a Pear Tree: Middle Eastern Analogues for Pirro/Pyrrhus"

13. Katherine A. Brown (Princeton University), "Splitting Pants and Pigs: The Fabliau Barat et Haimet and Narrative Strategies in Decameron 8.5 and 8.6"

14. Filippo Andrei (University of California, Berkeley), "The Tragicomedy of Lament: The Celestina and the Elegiac Legacy of Madonna Fiammetta"

15. Nora Peterson (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), "Sins, Sex, and Secrets: The Legacy of Confession from the Decameron to the Heptaméron"

What People are Saying About This

Guyda Armstrong

"Reconsidering Boccaccio is a substantial miscellany volume, featuring several extremely impressive contributors. Engaged with critical concerns beyond the narrow field of Boccaccio and source studies, Reconsidering Boccaccio will be of interest to scholars of comparative medieval French and Italian studies. With a focus on gender, particularly as it relates to women’s contributions to production and reception, Reconsidering Boccaccio also explores the importance of feminist response to Boccaccio’s work, and implicitly advances an argument for renewed attention."

Editorial Reviews

"This collection of essays, which moves from the close examination of Boccaccio's own manuscript of the Decameron to the larger social and legal contextualization of his works to their reception in Renaissance Europe, will prove a valuable point of reference to students and scholars of Boccaccio for years to come."—David G. Lummus, University of Notre Dame, Speculum
"This is a learned and provocative set of essays that should interest any scholar working in early modern European or Mediterranean studies."—Brenda Deen Schildgen, University of California, Davis,, University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018
"Reconsidering Boccaccio is a substantial miscellany volume, featuring several extremely impressive contributors. Engaged with critical concerns beyond the narrow field of Boccaccio and source studies, Reconsidering Boccaccio will be of interest to scholars of comparative medieval French and Italian studies. With a focus on gender, particularly as it relates to women's contributions to production and reception, Reconsidering Boccaccio also explores the importance of feminist response to Boccaccio's work, and implicitly advances an argument for renewed attention."—Guyda Armstrong, Department of Italian Studies, University of Manchester

From the Publisher

"This is a learned and provocative set of essays that should interest any scholar working in early modern European or Mediterranean studies."

, University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018 - Brenda Deen Schildgen

"This collection of essays, which moves from the close examination of Boccaccio's own manuscript of the Decameron to the larger social and legal contextualization of his works to their reception in Renaissance Europe, will prove a valuable point of reference to students and scholars of Boccaccio for years to come."

Speculum - David G. Lummus