Constructing Boccaccio’s English readers in the early modern period

Activity: Talk or presentationInvited talkResearch

Description

Boccaccio was one of the most popular Italian authors in English translation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with translations being published of the Thirteen Questions sequence of the Filocolo, the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta, the Ninfale fiesolano, and the Decameron, (both as individual novellas and the text as a whole). This paper will consider some of the directives to these English readers as they are constructed in the many editorial paratexts of these translations, and will reflect on how these intersect with Boccaccio’s own authorial directives, and what we know of their historic production and readership contexts.
Period27 Mar 2019
Event titleReaders and Reading in the Book: the Imaginary and the Material
Event typeConference
LocationLeeds, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of RecognitionNational