As Virgil leads Dante through Limbo, the uppermost portion of Hell, they are joined by four classical poets, and Virgil describes one of them as "Horace the satirist" ("Orazio satiro," 4:89). This collection of essays applies the expression to Dante himself in order to emphasize the satirical elements of his works. Although Dante is not typically described as a satirist, anyone familiar with his works will recognize the strong satirical element in his many writings. By exploring the satiric elements in Dante's literature, these essays explore the primary literary tool at his disposal for his prophetic objectives: the castigation of vice. This collection of essay is the first comprehensive study on Dante and satire within his entire corpus that has ever been published.

This collection of essays is the first comprehensive study on Dante and satire within his entire corpus that has been published. Its title evokes the moment when Virgil leads Dante through Limbo, the uppermost portion of Hell. There, they are joined by four classical poets, and Virgil describes one of them as "Horace the satirist" ("Orazio satiro," 4:89). By applying the expression to Dante himself, this volume seeks to explore the satirical elements in his works. Although Dante is not typically described as a satirist, anyone familiar with his works will recognize the strong satirical element in his many writings. Ultimately, this study shows that Dante engages in satire in order to attain the primary literary tool at his disposal for his prophetic objectives: the castigation of vice.

This translation brings the complete works of three minor but important Italian poets - Dante's contemporaries at the turn of the 14th century - to English speakers for the very first time. Taken together, the three authors sketch an idealized portrait of courtly life juxtaposed to the gritty, politically fractured world of northern Italy's mercantile urban centers in which they lived. One poet, Folgore di San Gimignano, idealizes court life during the period; the second, Cenne da la Chitarra, looks at it more realistically and parodies Folgore; and the third, Pietro dei Faitinelli, takes inspiration from Folgore's political writings and focuses on the politics of the times. The juxtaposition of the three poets in this work is effective and arguably shows them to be a poetic school. Tournaments, dinner tables, and public squares spring to life through vivid, material details, which should catch the interest of cultural historians and literary scholars alike. This translation is especially deft at reproducing the rich variety of culinary and sartorial vocabulary offered by the poets, and the translations of Pietro dei Faitinelli are especially well-executed.

The Poetry of Burchiello: Deep-fried Nouns, Hunchbacked Pumpkins, and Other Nonsense is the first complete English translation of the poetry of Domenico di Giovanni, nicknamed il Burchiello (ca. 1404-1449). A highly influential Florentine poet of the fifteenth century, and a barber by trade, Burchiello composed poetry that inspired numerous imitators and influenced writers for centuries afterwards. Ironically, however, he specialized in a nonsensical style that destabilized semantic meaning and that continues to baffle readers. In this bilingual edition of Burchiello's poetry, Fabian Alfie and Aileen A. Feng attempt to render Burchiello's non-sensical poetry into readable English while maintaining the experimental spirit of the original.

Comedy and Culture examines the ways on which the culture and society of the Middle Ages impacted on the works of the Sienese poet, Cecco Angiolieri (c.1260-1312). It analyses how Angiolieri's poetry conformed to medieval notions and practices of comicality. The study explores the means by which Cecco satirized important cultural movements of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, such as love literature and the ascendant Franciscan order. In addition, it looks at his relations with other writers of the day, including his three insulting sonnets addressed to Dante Alighieri. Comedy and Culture demonstrates that Angiolieri was not an isolated, bizarre' figure, as some early twentieth-century scholars have described him, but rather an author in step with his times. Fabian Alfie received his PhD in Italian from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1995. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Arizona in Tucson.