Dante and Renaissance Florence: 56 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Series Number 56) - Hardcover

Gilson, Simon A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521841658 ISBN 13: 9780521841658

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Synopsis

Simon Gilson explores Dante's reception in his native Florence between 1350 and 1481. He traces the development of Florentine civic culture and the interconnections between Dante's principal 'Florentine' readers, from Giovanni Boccaccio to Cristoforo Landino, and explains how and why both supporters and opponents of Dante exploited his legacy for a variety of ideological, linguistic, cultural and political purposes. The book focuses on a variety of texts, both Latin and vernacular, in which reference was made to Dante, from commentaries to poetry, from literary lives to letters, from histories to dialogues. Gilson pays particular attention to Dante's influence on major authors such as Boccaccio and Petrarch, on Italian humanism, and on civic identity and popular culture in Florence. Ranging across literature, philosophy and art, across languages and across social groups, this study fully illuminates for the first time Dante's central place in Italian Renaissance culture and thought.

About this title

Review

Review of the hardback: 'A book on Dante's reception which is both rich in detail and clear in direction ... excellent ... Simon Gilson's book is a major contribution to our understanding of the multiple ways in which Dante's works, and the figure of Dante, were understood in Florence.' The Times Literary Supplement

Review of the hardback: '... coherent and consistent in its methodology.' The Cambridge Quarterly

Book Description

Simon Gilson examines Dante's reception in Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly his influence on Boccaccio and Petrarch, and on humanism. Ranging across literature, philosophy and art, Gilson's study fully illuminates for the first time Dante's central place in Italian Renaissance culture and thought.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0521841658
• ISBN 13: 9780521841658
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 340