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Literary Criticism Poetry

Boccaccio's Expositions on Dante's Comedy

translated by Michael Papio

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Nov 2009
Category
Poetry, Medieval
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802099754
    Publish Date
    Nov 2009
    List Price
    $140.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442697393
    Publish Date
    Dec 2009
    List Price
    $162.00

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Description

In the fall of 1373, the city of Florence commissioned Giovanni Boccaccio to give lectures on Dante for the general population. These lectures, undeniably the most learned of all the early commentaries, came to be known as the Expositions on Dante's Divine Comedy. Though interrupted at Inferno XVII, they provide profound, near-contemporary interpretations of Dante's poem and contain, in many ways, some of the most beautiful aspects of Boccaccio's admirable literary production: narrative vignettes worthy of the best pages of the Decameron, insights on the rapidly changing approach to literary commentary, and a heartfelt belief that poetry is the most faithful guardian of history, philosophy, and theology.

Michael Papio's excellent translation finally makes the entirety of Boccaccio's often overlooked masterpiece accessible to a wider public and supplies a wealth of information in the notes that will prove useful to specialists and to general readers alike.

About the author

Michael Papio is an associate professor and director of Italian Studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Michael Papio's profile page