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'My Muse Will Have a Story to Paint': Selected Prose of Ludovico Ariosto Translated with an Introduction by Dennis Looney Ludovico Ariosto, best known for his 1516 epic poem Orlando furioso, was one of the great writers of the Italian Renaissance. In this collection, DEnnis Looney assembles a diverse compendium of Ariosto's prose, including his 214 Letters and a satirical piece, Herbal Doctor. Ariosto's correspondence paints a detailed portrait of the world he lived and wrote in. While some letters illuminate his day-to day life, including his work as a provincial commissioner for the ruling Este family of Ferrara, others shed light on the composition and production of his poems and plays, allowing a glimpse of the man in his creative workshop. Herbal Doctor, a parody of humanism in general and neoplatonic philosophy in particular, may mark a defense of Ariosto's decision to turn away from the philological world of his contemporaries in order to pursue a different kind of learning. Looney's elegant, careful translation provides us with the first extensive selection of Ariosto's prose works in English, and enriches our understanding of one of Italy's most important Renaissance writers. 
Boccaccio's Expositions on Dante's Comedy Translated by Michael Papio In the Fall of 1373, the city of Florence commissioned Giovanni Boccaccio to give lectures on Dante for the general population. These lectures, undeniably the most learned of all the early commentaries, came to be known as the Expositions on Dante's Divine Comedy. Though interrupted at Inferno XVII, they provide profound, near-contemporary interpretations of Dante's poem and contain, in many ways, some of the most beautiful aspects of Boccaccio's admirable literary production: narrative vignettes worthy of the best pages of the Decameron, insights on the rapidly changing approach to literary commentary, and a hearthfelt belief that poetry is the most faithful guardian of history, philosophy, and theology. Michael Papio's excellent translation finally makes the entirety of Boccaccio's often overlooked masterpiece accessible to a wider public and supplies a wealth of information in the notes that will prove useful to specialists and to general readers alike. 
Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters, Volume II Introduction by Donald Beecher Edited by Donald Beecher In this second volume of Renaissance Comedy, Donald Beecher presents six more of the best-known plays of the period, each with its own introduction, reading notes, and annotations. Beecher's general introduction, though stand-alone, complements and extends the historical and critical essay prefacing the first volume. Together, the eleven plays in both volumes illuminate the range, variety, and development of the Italian comedy. The second volume of Renaissance Comedy raises fascinating questions about the uses of classical literature, the conventions of comedy, the politics of theatrical production, and the representation of contemporary social issues. Though it is clear that comedic plays are above all remarkable for their sheer wit and invention, and their capacity to generate laughter and admiration in readers nearly half a millennium later. 
Dialogues of Love Edited by Rossella Pescatori Translated by Damian Bacich and Rossella Pescatori First published in Rome in 1535, Leone Ebreo's Dialogues of Love is one of the most important texts of the European Renaissance. Well known in the Italian academies of the sixteenth century, its popularity quickly spread throughout Europe, with numerous reprintings and translations into French, Latin, Spanish, and Hebrew. It attracted a diverse audience that included noblemen, courtesans, artists, poets, intellectuals, and philosophers. More than just a bestseller, the work exerted a deep influence over the centuries on figures as diverse as Giordano Bruno, John Donne, Miguelde Cervantes, and Baruch Spinoza. Leone's Dialogues consists of three conversations - 'On Love and Desire,' 'On the Universality of Love,' and 'On the origin of Love' - that take place over a period of three subsequent days. They are organized in a dialogic format, much like a theatrical representation, of a conversation between a man, Philo, who plays the role of the lover and teacher, and a woman, Sophia, the beloved and pupil. The discussion covers a wide range of topics that have as their common denominator the idea of Love. Through the dialogue the author explores many different points of view and complex philosophical ideas. Grounded in a distinctly Jewish tradition, and drawing on Neoplatonic philosophical structures and Arabic sources, the work offers a useful compendium of classical and contemporary thought, yet was not incompatible with Christian doctrine. Despite the unfinished state and somewhat controversial, enigmatic nature of Ebreo's famous text, it remains one of the most significant and influential works in the history of Western thought. This new, expertly translated and annotated English edition takes into account the latest scholarship and provides an invaluable resource for today's readers. 
The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L'arte et prudenza d' un maestro Cuoco (The Art and Craft of a Master Cook) Translated with Commentary by Terence Scully Bartolomeo Scappi (c. 1500-1570) was arguably the most famous chef of the Italian Renaissance. He oversaw the preparation of meals for several Cardinals and was such master of his profession that he became the personal cook for two Popes. At the culmination of his prolific career he complied the largest cookery treatise of the period to instruct an apprentice on the full craft of ifne cuisine, its methods, ingredients, and recipes. Accompanying his book was a set of unique and precious engravings that show the ideal kitchen of his day, its operations and myriad utensils, and are exquisitely reproduced in this volume. Scappi's Opera presents more than one thousand recipes along with menus that comprise up to a hundred dishes, while also commenting on a cook's responsibilities. Scappi also included a fascinating account of a pope's funeral and the complex procedures for feeding the cardinals during the ensuing conclave. His recipes inherit medieval culinary customs, but also anticipate modern Italian cookery with a segment of 230 recipes for pastry of plain and flaky dough (torte, ciambelle, pastizzi, crostate) and pasta (tortellini, tagliatelli, struffoli, ravioli, pizza). Terence Scully presents the first English translation of the work. His aim is to make the recipes and the broad experience of this sophisticated papal cook accessible to a modern English audience interested in the culinary expertise and gastronomic refiniment within the most civilized niche of Renaissance society. 
Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters, Volume One Introduction by Donald Beecher Edited by Donald Beecher A rich and multi-faceted aspect of the Italian Renaissance, the comedy has been largely overlooked as a cultural force during the period. In Renaissance Comedy, editor Donald Beecher corrects this oversight with a collection of eleven comedies representative of the principal styles of writing that define the genre. proceeding from early, "erudite" imitations of Plautus and Terence to satires, sentimental plays of the middle years, and later, more experimental works, the development of Italian Renaissance comedy is here dissected in a fascinating and vivid light. The first of two volumes boasts five of the best-known plays of the period, each with its own historical and critical introduction. Also included is a general introduction by the editor, which discusses the features of Italian Renaissance comedy, as well as examines the stage histories of the plays and what little is known, in many cases, of the circumstances surrounding their original performances. The introduction raises questions concerning the nature of the audiences, the festival occasions during which the plays were performed, and the academies which sponsored many of their creations. As a much-needed reappraisal of these comedic plays, Renaissance Comedy is an invaluable look at the performance history of the Renaissance and Italian culture in general.
ON CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS AND OTHER WRITINGS Foreword by Bryan Stevenson Introduction by Alberto Burgio Edited by Aaron Thomas Translation by Aaron Thomas and Jeremy Parzen The most significant essay on crime and punishment in Western civilization, On Crimes and Punishments was first published in Italy in 1764. It immediately became an international success, praised by Jefferson and Franklin in the USA, by Voltaire and Bentham in Europe. Today, Beccaria's book is more relevant than ever. Many of the principles it advocates—such as emphasis on the prevention of crime, the promptness of punishment, and the ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent—are indeed central to the contemporary debates on crime. The present volume also includes reactions by some of Beccaria's illustrious contemporaries and collaborators: Pietro and Alessandro Verri and Voltaire. Cesare Beccaria understood that the administration of criminal justice provides organized societies with the greatest opportunity to ennoble the human struggle, but also presents civilization with a tremendous risk of corruption through temporal passions and abuse of power. Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments remains one of the most influential works on crime and punishment in the last three centuries. -Bryan Stevenson from his foreword 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LOVE AND OTHER WRITINGS Introduction and Notes by Nicoletta Pireddu Translation by David Jacobson Physician, anthropologist, sexologist, traveler, novelist, politician, Paolo Mantegazza is probably the most eclectic figure in late nineteenth-century Italian culture. A very prolific writer, extremely popular during his lifetime both in Italy and abroad, he can be considered a forerunner of what has now come to be known as "cultural studies" for his interdisciplinary approach, his passionate blend of scientific and literary elements in his writings, and his ability to transcend the boundaries between "high" and "low" culture. Of this great provocateur and popularizer of knowledge, who persistently broached controversial physiological, moral, social, and political issues in his over one hundred works, the present volume collects representative examples, most of which are translated into English for the first time. In addition to the unabridged English version of Physiology of Love, a veritable bestseller at the time of its publication, selections include Mantegazza's groundbreaking essay On the Hygienic and Medicinal Properties of Coca and substantial excerpts from two of his travelogues (A Voyage to Lapland and India), his epistolary novel One Day in Madeira and his treatise on materialistic aesthetics Epicurus. Essay in a Physiology of the Beautiful. As suggestions for further readings, the volume finally proposes brief passages from additional works by Mantegazza, ranging from science fiction (The Year 3000), pedagogical literature (Head) and personal memoirs (Political Memoirs of a Foot-Soldier in the Italian Parliament), to social and cultural criticism (The Neurosic Century and The Tartuffe Century). This volume does not only introduce readers to a pioneering and captivating "Renaissance man", but also maps the circulation of ideas and the crossfertilization of disciplines in a complex and contradictory period of Italian and European cultural life. 
IL RIPOSO Translation by Lloyd H. Ellis Jr. Raffaello Borghini’s Il Riposo (1584) is the most widely known Florentine document on the subject of the Counter-Reformation content of religious paintings. Despite its reputation as an art-historical text, this is the first English-language translation of Il Riposo to be published. A distillation of the art gossip that was a feature of the Medici Grand Ducal court, Borghini’s treatise puts forth simple criteria for judging the quality of a work of art. Published sixteen years after the second edition of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite, the text that set the standard for art-historical writing during the period, Il Riposo focuses on important issues that Vasari avoided, ignored, or was oblivious to. Picking up where Vasari left off, Borghini deals with artists who came after Michaelangelo and provides more comprehensive descriptions of artists who Vasari only touched upon such as Tintoretto, Veronese, Barocci, and the artists of Francesco I’s Studiolo. This text is also invaluable as a description of the mid-sixteenth century reaction against the style of the ‘maniera’, which stressed the representation of self-consciously convoluted figures in complicated works of art. The first art treatise specifically directed toward non-practitioners, Il Riposo gives unique insight into the early stages of art history as a discipline, late Renaissance art and theory, and the Counter-Reformation in Italy. 
THE FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD: An Account of Magellan's Expedition On August 10, 1519, five ships departed from Seville for what was to become the first circumnavigation of the earth. Linked by fame to the name of its captain, Magellan, much of the expedition is known through the travelogue of one of the few crew members who returned to Spain: Antonio Pigafetta. A narrative and cartographic record of the journey (the book includes 22 hand-drawn watercolor charts), from Patagonia to Indonesia, from the Philippines to the Cape of Good Hope, Pigafetta's The First Voyage Around the World represents one of the great classics of discovery and exploration literature. Magellan emerges from its pages as a heroic figure worthy of the extraordinary feat that he was tragically denied seeing through to its end. It was Gabriel García Márquez who provided a memorable introduction to Pigafetta's book when he evoked at the beginning of his 1982 Nobel lecture, the Renaissance traveler "who went with Magellan on the first voyage around the world," and wrote "a strictly accurate account that nonetheless resembles a venture into fanstasy." Márquez's citation of Pigafetta is certainly the most resonant in a long line of prestigious literary responses. From Shakespeare's Tempest to "magical realism," such allusions have enabled the editor of this edition to trace an intriguing continuity in the literary category of the marvelous. But Pigafetta's book is far from being just a marvel-filled travel narrative or a hagiographic text honoring the legendary explorer. Indeed, The First Voyage is much more: its remarkably accurate ethnographic and geographical account of the circumnavigation has guaranteed its status among modern historiographers and students of the earliest contacts between Europeans and the East Indies. Two aspects of Pigafetta's account are particularly worthy of note: his attention to the language of the peoples encountered and his contribution to the cartography of the East Indies, in the form of twenty-three painted maps featured in the earliest manuscripts of the book. Perfectly aware of the literary tradition established by the voyages of Columbus, Cabral, and Vespucci, Pigafetta's account of the circumnavigation splendidly illustrates the impulse to "fix and perpetuate something as transient and impermanent as human action and mobility" (Eric Leed, The Mind of the Traveler), which lies at the heart of travel literature. This edition is modeled in its editorial presentation on a direct copy of the original presentation manuscript written in Italian (Ambrosiana Library ms. L 103 Sup.), which was fashioned according to the "Book of Islands" (Isolario) genre of Renaissance travel literature. It is based for the text on the recent crucial edition of the text by Antonio Canova 1999 and includes an extensive introduction to the work and is generously annotated. 
BREVIARY OF AESTHETICS: Four Lectures Introduction by Remo Bodei Translation by Hiroko Fudemoto Croce's most enduring study undoubtedly is his work on aesthetics... In recent times, we have witnessed a more dispassionate analysis of his ideas, attributable in part to the passage of time that tends to dilute polemics, and in part to the recognition of Croce's works as classics and to his international stature achieved and sustained by his thought, which, in addition to the limpid prose, is characterized by a coherent rigour. -Remo Bodei from his introduction Croce writes in the preface to his Guide: "Subsequent to this invitation [to the Rice Institute inauguration in 1912] I wrote Guide to Aesthetics in a matter of days... once completed—and not without some intellectual gratification—it was apparent to me that not only had the most important concepts from my latest works on [aesthetics] been condensed, but they had been advanced here with a better nexus, and with greater lucidity than I had achieved almost twelve years ago with Estetica. It also occurred to me that this short volume of four lectures can be useful to young people studying poetry, or art in general, and perhaps be of value to secondary schools as a useful lesson for literary and philosophical teachings. This is because I think the study of Aesthetics, when properly taught, introduces them to a knowledge of philosophy perhaps better than any other philosophical discipline." 
CIVILIZATION AND DEMOCRACY: The Salvemi Anthology of Cattaneo's Writings Edited and introduced by Carlo G. Lacaita and Filippo Sabetti Translation by David Gibbons Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869) was widely regarded by his contemporaries as a gifted public intellectual and a leading figure in the republican, democratic current of the Italian Risorgimento. Following the collapse of the 1848 revolts, he took refuge and settled in Switzerland, where he is now regarded as one of Canton Ticino's outstanding nineteenth century figures. He has been hailed variously as "the most profound and versatile intellectual of all the Italian Risorgimento," "the only self-conscious theorist of liberalism in nineteenth-century Italy," "a committed comparativist," and even "the last of the great Encyclopedists, the universal scholar." From the 1820s to his death, Cattaneo dedicated himself to many theoretical and practical problems of his day. His writings span the fields of economics, history, politics, philosophy, and law, and address topics as diverse as the nature of chemistry, the construction of railways and the study of language and literature. This anthology, which was originally published in Italian in 1922, contains a selection of these writings chosen by the historian and political theorist Gaetano Salvemini, a fierce critic of fascism who was active in organizing the Resistance during his exile in the United States in the 1930s. These essays constitute perhaps the best introduction to Cattaneo, for they show not only the range of his interests, but also the skill, thoughtfulness and sensitivity he brought to his subjects. At the same time, these disparate writings form a fairly consistent treatise, rendering the volume much larger than the sum of its parts. For it is Cattaneo's great merit to have seldom lost sight of the need to understand how people try to make sense of their world and the possibilities available to advance human progress. In brief, Cattaneo's aim was never just to inform his readers, but to move them to act. It was this emphasis on action that led to Salvemini's interest in Cattaneo as Mussolini's fascist movement stood at the threshold of power. This collection of essays is thus as much a testament to Cattaneo's enduring legacy as it is a measure of Salvemini's foresight and his commitment to extend a tradition of thought that could serve as a civic philosophy. For as the dark and ominous clouds of fascism loomed on Italy's cultural and political horizon, Salvemini clearly saw how vitally important Cattaneo's enlightened philosophy could be to the public life of democracy. 
SCIENCE IN THE KITCHEN AND THE ART OF EATING WELL Foreword by Michele Scicolone Introduction by Luigi Ballerini Translation by Murtha Baca and Stephen Sartarelli Watercolors by Giuliano Della Casa More than a collection of recipes, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, first published in Florence in 1891, is a literary classic as well as a classic in the art of Italian cooking. Artusi is an urbane and witty narrator who speaks directly to his readers and provides a wealth of stories and anecdotes that constitute a valuable study of domestic Italian history and folklore. Born in Emilia-Romagna in 1820, Pellegrino Artusi is the most famous gastronome that Italy has ever produced. He turned to the culinary arts at age 50, after having assembled a fortune as a banker in the city of Florence. "Whatever else they may be, his pages read like a humorous collection of practical, naïve, and sometimes blasphemous remarks. They are a meticulous compilation of culinary rules, means, and advice, tickled and bedazzled by a panoply of anecdotes and commentaries drawn from history and myth as well as mildly encyclopedic samples of zoological and botanical information. If not a perfect admixture, they form a decidedly irresistible cocktail." - Luigi Ballerini from his introduction 
AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE SEXTET Translation by Murtha Baca Six of the best short stories of the Italian Quattrocento—including a rare gem by Lorenzo de Medici—are collected here by scholar Lauro Martines and accompanied by six lively essays which provide a gateway into the real, historical world of the Italian Renaissance. "Martines has managed to paint a lively and fascinating fresco of fifteenth-century Florence, the city of great artists who were among the most innovative of their era, but also the most garrulous and frolicsome... Rightly so, Martines concludes his collection with the exhilarant story of 'The Fat Woodcarver' in which Brunelleschi and Donatello play a sensational trick against the background of their Florentine workshops... They gradually persuade the Woodcarver that he is someone else—a certain Matteo—and lead him to be put in jail as Matteo... This tale of split personality has been described as a Renaissance precursor—with more humor, but also more anxiety, to it—of Pirandello. One could, moreover, think of Calvino and Landolfi, or even, since we are in America, of Hitchcock." - Vittore Branca 
ARETINO'S DIALOGUES Foreword by Alberto Moravia Introduction by Margaret Rosenthal Translation by Raymond Rosenthal The first erotic book in the Christian world to be written in the vernacular, Aretino's Dialogues are a series of humorous and bawdy conversations between two sharp-tongued women discussing the three occupations open to women in the Renaissance: wife, nun, and whore. Aretino, an early sixteenth-century writer and courtier, had a significant and controversial career first at the Papal court in Rome and later in Venice. "Aretino is an extraordinary storyteller, excelled in the sixteenth century only by Cellini. His realism is picaresque; the immensely lively anecdotes woven into the Dialogues all illustrate a vision of life that is motivated by necessity...Food, clothing, money, possessions—survival, in a word—are the important things. Here is where, in my opinion, one must look for Aretino's truth. There were two Renaissances, one sumptuous and aristocratic, the other sordid and plebeian. Aretino left us unchallengeable testimony about the second. He was an involuntary witness, one who was incapable of passing judgment—for he himself was often compromised or actively conspiring—but he possessed an exceptionally quick, clear, sharp and precise eye." - Alberto Moravia 
A TOURNAMENT OF MISFITS Introduction by Nicolas J. Perella Translation by Nicolas J. Perella Aldo Palazzeschi (1885-1974) is arguably the major twentieth-century Italian writer who has been most neglected by the English-speaking world. Born in Florence and trained as an actor, Palazzeschi ranks high as a poet and fiction writer in his homeland. His work, which attempts to recreate the experience of a spectator watching and listening to a character on stage, won him the praise of F. T. Marinetti, the founder of Italian futurism, who enrolled the young poet in his avant-garde coterie despite the fact that, stylistically, Palazzeschi's work had little in commom with futurism. A Tournament of Misfits brings together a selection of Palazzeshi's short fiction for the first time in English. Through clear and fluid translations, Nicolas J. Perella demonstrates Palazzeschi's use of laughter to debunk social and literary myths. As a social being, Palazzeschi felt himself a deviant, but he was saved from a self-destructive bitterness by his capacity of irony, which he often directed at himself as well as others. Yet, it would be a mistake not to see the desperate yearning for liberation from society's rigid code behind the irony and the fun in Palazzeschi's work. With this translation, Perella brings Palazzeschi to life for a new audience to appreciate. 
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