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Petrarch in Britain: Interpreters, Imitators, and Translators over 700 years

Online ISBN:
9780191734649
Print ISBN:
9780197264133
Publisher:
British Academy
Book

Petrarch in Britain: Interpreters, Imitators, and Translators over 700 years

Martin McLaughlin (ed.),
Martin McLaughlin
(ed.)
Fiat Serena Professor of Italian Studies, University of Oxford
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Letizia Panizza (ed.),
Letizia Panizza
(ed.)
Research Fellow, Italian Department, Royal Holloway, University of London
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Peter Hainsworth (ed.)
Peter Hainsworth
(ed.)
Faculty Research Fellow in Italian, Emeritus Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
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Published:
15 November 2007
Online ISBN:
9780191734649
Print ISBN:
9780197264133
Publisher:
British Academy

Abstract

Petrarch was Italy's second most famous writer (after Dante), and indeed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries he was much better known and more influential in English literature than Dante. His Italian love lyrics constituted the major influence on European love poetry for at least two centuries from 1400 to 1600, and in Britain he was imitated by Chaucer, the Elizabethans, and other lyric poets up until the end of the eighteenth century. With Romanticism Dante ousted Petrarch from his pre-eminent position, but in our post-Romantic age, attention has now started to swing back to Petrarch. This volume is a survey of Petrarch's literary legacy in Britain. Starting with his own views of those whom he called the ‘barbari Britanni’, the volume then explores a number of key topics: Petrarch's analysis of the self; his dialogue with other classical and Italian authors; Petrarchism and anti-Petrarchism in Renaissance Italy; Petrarchism in England and Scotland; and Petrarch's modern legacy in both Italy and Britain. Many important texts and poets are considered, including Giordano Bruno, Leopardi, Foscolo, Ascham, Sidney, Spenser, and Walter Savage Landor.

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