The modern concept of passing leisure hours pleasantly would, in the Middle Ages, have fallen under the rubric of Sloth, a deadly sin. Yet aristocrats of past centuries were not always absorbed in affairs of state or warfare. What did they do in moments of peace, "downtime" as we might call it today? In this collection of essays, scholars from various disciplines investigate courtly modes of entertainment ranging from the vigorous to the intellectual: hunting, jousting, horse racing; physical and verbal games; reading, writing, and book ownership. Favorite pastimes spanned differences of gender and age, and crossed geographical and cultural boundaries. Literary and historical examples come from England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Courtly Pastimes analyzes the underlying rationales for such activities: to display power and prestige, to acquire cultural capital, to instill a sense of community, or to build diplomatic alliances. Performativity so crucial in social rituals could become transgressive if taken to extremes. Certain chapters explore the spaces of courtliness: literal or imaginary; man-made, natural, or a hybrid of both. Other chapters concern materiality and visual elements associated with courtly pastimes: from humble children's toys and playthings to elite tournament attire, castle murals, and manuscript illuminations.

An important medieval and Renaissance prose narrative form, the novella greatly influenced the modern narrative. This collection of essays explores the Italian novella's full scope.

The novella was an important medieval and Renaissance prose narrative form that developed out of exempla and didactic literature and contributed to modern narrative forms. This is the first collection of essays dedicated to comprehensive scholarship on the Italian novella. The essays range from work on the Decameron, the epitome of the genre, to studies of sixteenth century authors who often utilized transgressive or sexual themes in their novellas.

Published in 1999, the ten essays in this collection identify and examine reworkings of identifiable source texts from the medieval or Renaissance periods. The reasons for the modern adaptations depend variously on an individual author's personal perspectives, the worldview of his or her society, and the individual's place in it. The various chapters therefore address issues such as why a particular model was chosen and how its retelling depends on the modern author/auteur's misreading or rereading of medieval chivalric conventions. This book compliments numerous existing studies of medievalism in the Enlightenment and Victorian eras by examining more recent adaptations of the much studied Arthurian romances, but primarily extends the discussion on the nature of revivals to other medieval or Renaissance chivalric texts, especially the Carolingian cycle epic. The collection includes not only literary retellings of medieval texts, but also some in different media, such as theatre and cinema.

Text and facing English translation of a version of the Tristan story from north-east Italy. The Tristano Corsiniano is preserved in a unique manuscript of the Biblioteca Corsiniana housed at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome (MS 55.K.5; formerly Rossi 2593). Written in a mixture of northeastern Italian dialects, the manuscript was probably copied in the third quarter of the fourteenth century. The contents are a much abbreviated descendent of the noted French prose Roman de Tristan; opening with Dinadan's amusing discoursesand misadventures, the majority of the story concerns the famous three-day Tournament at Loverzep, and concludes with King Arthur and Lancelot visiting Tristan, Yseut and their companions. The manuscript, although not luxurious,is heavily decorated with designs that perfectly reflect the vigorous and spirited narrative style. This volume presents a new edition of the text, accompanied by the first ever translation into English, thereby making this important version of the Tristan story available more widely. It also includes an introduction, listing of illuminations, bibliography and explanatory notes. Gloria Allaire is Assistant Professor of Italian at theUniversity of Kentucky.

This is the first comprehensive book on the Arthurian legend in medieval and Renaissance Italy since Edmund Gardner's 1930 The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature. Arthurian material reached all levels of Italian society, from princely courts with their luxury books and frescoed palaces, to the merchant classes and even popular audiences in the piazza, which enjoyed shorter retellings in verse and prose. Unique assemblages emerge on Italian soil, such as the Compilation of Rustichello da Pisa or the innovative Tavola Ritonda, in versions made for both Tuscany and the Po Valley. Chapters examine the transmission of the French romances across Italy; reworkings in various Italian regional dialects; the textual relations of the prose Tristan; narrative structures employed by Italian writers; later ottava rima poetic versions in the new medium of printed books; the Arthurian-themed art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; and more. The Arthur of the Italians offers a rich corpus of new criticism by scholars who have brought the Italian Arthurian material back into critical conversation.

The Arthurian Archives series of texts and editions in translation, edited by Norris J. Lacy, makes a start on Italian Arthurian material, with a 14c Tristan text. This is the first critical edition with English translation of the prose compilation Tristano panciatichiano, preserved in a unique manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence (MS Panc. 33); it is the first time theItalian text has been published in its entirety in any form. Assembled by the mid-fourteenth century, the manuscript is an original compilation in Italian based on several French models: the Queste del San Graal, Josephd'Arimathie, the Mort Artu, and notably, the Roman de Tristan en prose. While the edition itself will be of great interest, the translation into English is a major opportunity for Arthurians and other medievalists, and furnishes important new evidence for the study of Arthurian material in Italy. Apparatus includes a finding list of Arthurian manuscripts produced, owned or read by Italians; a select bibliography; and an index of proper names found in the narrative.