Dante's pervasive presence has been a feature of modern writing since the late 18th century. This collection of essays emphasizes that presence in the work of major British and Irish writers (such as Blake, Shelley, Joyce and Heaney). It also focuses on responses in America, the Caribbean and Italy and deals with appropriations of Dante's work by poets (from Gray to Walcott) and novelists (such as Mary Shelley and Giorgio Bassani, and Gloria Naylor).

The nineteenth century saw the reinvention of Dante as a Romantic and national poet, his recognition as the canonical 'central man of all the world' and the Commedia's diffusion as a widely accessible text. Addressing these aspects of Dante's presence during a key period of his modern reception, this collection of essays draws upon a number of papers given at the international conference 'Dante in the Nineteenth Century', held at the University of York in July 2008, and combines the work of established experts in the field with that of younger scholars who are breaking important new ground on the subject. It is distinctive in concentrating on the reception of Dante from Romanticism through the cult of Beatrice and mid-century criticism, translation and visual art, to the development of scholarship and popularization. The volume explores diverse nineteenth-century historical, intellectual, artistic and literary contexts in the cultures of Italy, France, the British Isles and the United States.

Dream literature is regarded as one of the most important genres in medieval literature and is widely studied. This text provides a succinct and clear introduction to the five central poems that comprise Chaucer's Dream Poetry, and shows his role as a leading adapter of European Literary tradition into English Literature. The poems discussed are The Book of the Duchess, The Legend of Good Women, The Legend of Dido, The Parliament of Fowls and The House of Fame. Each have an introduction setting the poem within the context of Dream Poetry and Chaucer's own work. Appendices of proper names, pronunciation and criticism are also given. This volume is unique is presenting the poems together in an editorial and critical framework. The quality of annotation is unrivalled and will make this text a major addition to the literature suitable for those interested in the genre, literary, or more general history of the period.

Dream literature is regarded as one of the most important genres in medieval literature and is widely studied. This text provides a succinct and clear introduction to the five central poems that comprise Chaucer's Dream Poetry, and shows his role as a leading adapter of European Literary tradition into English Literature. The poems discussed are The Book of the Duchess, The Legend of Good Women, The Legend of Dido, The Parliament of Fowls and The House of Fame. Each have an introduction setting the poem within the context of Dream Poetry and Chaucer's own work. Appendices of proper names, pronunciation and criticism are also given. This volume is unique is presenting the poems together in an editorial and critical framework. The quality of annotation is unrivalled and will make this text a major addition to the literature suitable for those interested in the genre, literary, or more general history of the period.

Nick Havely examines the connections between Dante, the Franciscans and the Papacy as they appear in the Commedia and presents the poem as one concerned with an often dramatic confrontation between authority and idealism in the Church. Havely draws on a wide range of literary, historical and art-historical sources relating to the controversy about Franciscan poverty during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This study will appeal to scholars interested in medieval religious and intellectual history, as well as to readers of Dante's poem.

Dante's persistent and pervasive presence has been a remarkable feature of modern writing since the late eighteenth century. This collection of essays by an international group of scholars emphasizes that presence in the work of major British and Irish writers (such as Blake, Shelley, Joyce and Heaney). It also focuses on responses in America, the Caribbean and Italy and deals with appropriations of Dante's work by poets (from Gray to Walcott) and novelists (such as Mary Shelley and Giorgio Bassani, and Gloria Naylor).

This is the first account of Dante's reception in English to address full chronological span of that process. Individual authors and periods have been studied before, but Dante's British Public takes a wider and longer view, using a selection of vivid and detailed case studies to record and place in context some of the wider conversations about and appropriations of Dante that developed in Britain across more than six centuries, as access to his work extended and diversified. Much of the evidence is based on previously unpublished material in (for example) letters, journals, annotations and inventories and is drawn from archives in the UK and across the world, from Milan to Mumbai and from Berlin to Cape Town. Throughout, the role of Anglo-Italian cultural contacts and intermediaries in shaping the public understanding of Dante in Britain is given prominence - from clerics and merchants around Chaucer's time, through itinerant scholars, collectors and tourists in the early modern period, to the exiles and expatriates of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The final chapter brings the story up to the present, showing how the poet's work has been seen (from the fourteenth century onwards) as accessible to 'the many', and demonstrating some of the means by which Dante has reached a yet wider British public over the past century, particularly through translation, illustration, and various forms of performance.

The varied career of Adam Easton (c.1330-1397) led him from Norwich Cathedral Priory to Oxford, Avignon and Rome. Not only a monk of the Benedictine Order, he was also a scholar, theologian, diplomat and cardinal, and his work reflects the breadth of this multifaceted background. This volume presents recent research on Easton's oeuvre, his diplomacy and the books that accompanied him on his travels. Amongst the works addressed in this volume are Easton's Defensorium ecclesiastice potestatis, his Defensorium Sanctae Birgittae and his Office for the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. Further evidence is also offered on his testimony during the Great Schism, on the dating of his copy of De pauperie Salvatoris, while two reassessments are made of his likeness, including his sepulchral monument at S. Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome and the Lutterworth wall painting. Finally, a catalogue of Easton's important manuscript collection is also provided.

This is the first account of Dante's reception in English to address full chronological span of that process. Individual authors and periods have been studied before, but Dante's British Public takes a wider and longer view, using a selection of vivid and detailed case studies to record and place in context some of the wider conversations about and appropriations of Dante that developed in Britain across more than six centuries, as access to his work extended and diversified. Much of the evidence is based on previously unpublished material in (for example) letters, journals, annotations and inventories and is drawn from archives in the UK and across the world, from Milan to Mumbai and from Berlin to Cape Town. Throughout, the role of Anglo-Italian cultural contacts and intermediaries in shaping the public understanding of Dante in Britain is given prominence - from clerics and merchants around Chaucer's time, through itinerant scholars, collectors and tourists in the early modern period, to the exiles and expatriates of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The final chapter brings the story up to the present, showing how the poet's work has been seen (from the fourteenth century onwards) as accessible to 'the many', and demonstrating some of the means by which Dante has reached a yet wider British public over the past century, particularly through translation, illustration, and various forms of performance.

This collection of essays by an international group of scholars offers an account of Dante's reception in a wide range of media: visual art, literature, theatre, cinema, and music, from the late eighteenth century through to the early twentieth. It thus explores various appropriations and interpretations of his works and persona during the era of modernization in Europe, the United States, and beyond. It includes work by internationally recognized experts and a new generation of scholars in the field, and the eighteen essays are grouped in sections which relate both to themes and regions. The volume begins and ends by addressing Italy's reception of the national poet, and its other main sections show how a worldwide dialogue with Dante developed in France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Ireland, India, and Turkey. The whole collection demonstrates how this dialogue explicitly or implicitly informed the construction, recovery or re-definition of cultural identity among various nations, regions and ethnic groups during the 'long nineteenth century'. It not only aims at wide coverage of the period's voices and concerns, and includes discussion of well-known writers such as Ugo Foscolo, Giosue Carducci, Mary Shelley, John Ruskin, George Eliot, Charles Eliot Norton and Ralph Waldo Emerson - along with a large number of significant but less familiar figures. It also emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary and multilingual approach to the subject of Dante and nineteenth-century nationalism, and it will thus be of interest to scholars and students in comparative literary and nineteenth-century studies, as well as to those with a general interest in cultural studies and the history of ideas.

Nick Havely examines the connections between Dante, the Franciscans and the Papacy as they appear in the Commedia and presents the poem as one concerned with an often dramatic confrontation between authority and idealism in the Church. Havely draws on a wide range of literary, historical and art-historical sources relating to the controversy about Franciscan poverty during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This study will appeal to scholars interested in medieval religious and intellectual history, as well as to readers of Dante's poem.

This anthology of versions by 16 contemporary poets from around the world of the 33 Cantos of Dante's Purgatorio is published to mark the 700th centenary of Dante's death in 1321. With an absorbing Introduction by Nick Havely tracing Dante's influence on countless poets over the centuries, and detailed explanatory notes, canto by canto, this volume is both an outstanding work of scholarship and, for the poetry lover, a superb way into the world of this extraordinary medieval masterpiece.