Description
Book SynopsisThis book provides a new perspective on the extraordinary emergence of the Italian literary tradition through the close investigation of a single codex, written entirely in Boccaccio's hand, that preserves rare and unique texts of Dante, Petrarch and Cavalcanti. As such, it offers a major contribution to manuscript studies and a new portrait of Boccaccio.
Trade Review'Eisner's book is a welcome addition to studies on the self‐authorizing project of the Italian poets at a key moment in the rise of European vernaculars. It is also a particularly fine specimen of the 'material' turn in medieval literary studies. A reliable guide to this intricate web of interconnectedness, Eisner shows how productive the combination of philology and interpretation can be, tracing convincingly the impact of paleographical features on reception, the significance of making a book, the significance of page layout, of juxtaposition, of inclusion and exclusion, of editorial choices, of contamination in transcription - and Boccaccio's unique role in all of this.' Alison Cornish, Modern Philology
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Boccaccio between Dante and Petrarch: cultivating vernacular literary community in the Chigi codex; 1. Dante's dirty feet and the limping republic: Boccaccio's defense of literature in the Vita di Dante; 2. Dante's shame and Boccaccio's paratextual praise: editing the Vita nuova, Commedia, and canzoni distese; 3. The making of Petrarch's vernacular Book of Fragments (Fragmentorum liber); 4. The inventive scribe: glossing Cavalcanti in the Chigi and Decameron 6.9; Epilogue: the allegory of the vernacular: Boccaccio's Esposizioni and Petrarch's Griselda.
