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.

Simon Gilson examines Dante's reception in Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

About the Author
Simon Gilson is Senior Lecturer in Italian at the University of Warwick.

Reviews
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 Information
ISBN 9780521100182
Author Simon A. Gilson
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 500g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm