Chaucer and the Italian Trecento

A collection of essays debating what fourteenth-century Italy and its literature meant to Chaucer.

This paperback consists of a collection of essays, first published in 1983, which contribute to a debate that has been occupying scholars for many years: what did fourteenth-century Italy and its literature mean to Chaucer? These essays include source studies and comparative analyses of such masterpieces as The Divine Comedy, The Canzoniere, The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales.This paperback consists of a collection of essays which have aroused considerable interest, since their first publication in 1983, in a question that has been occupying scholars for many years: what did fourteenth-century Italy and its literature mean to Chaucer? In the first part of the book contributors assess the general state of English and Italian culture in the fourteenth century and the complex network of Anglo-Italian relationships in the areas of trade, finance, church organisation and academic exchange. The second part faces the literary problem that Chaucer's borrowing from Italian authors poses: not only what he takes, but how and why. These essays include source studies and comparative analyses of such masterpieces as The Divine Comedy, The Canzoniere, The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales.