Moralizing the Italian Marvellous in Early Modern England

This volume breaks new ground in the exploration of Anglo-Italian cultural relations: it presents analyses of a wide range of early modern Italian texts adapted into contemporary English culture, often through intermediary French translations. When transposed into English, their Italian origin was frequently categorized as marvellous and consequently censured because of its strangeness: thus, English translators often gave their public a moralized and tamed version of Italy’s uniqueness. This volume’s contributors show that an effective way of moralizing Italian custom was to exoticize its origins, in order to protect the English public from an Italianate influence. This ubiquitous moralization is visible in the evolution of the concept of tragedy, and in the overtly educational aim acquired by the Italian novella, adapted for an allegedly female audience. Through the analysis of various literary genres (novella, epic poem, play, essay), the volume focuses on the mechanisms of appropriation and rejection of Italian culture through imported topoi and narremes.

Beatrice Fuga holds a PhD in English Studies. After completing her Master’s degree in English Studies, she obtained a funded PhD at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, where she currently teaches English literature, grammar, and translation. Her research revolves around the reception of Italian novelle in the early modern period and the role of translation in European cultural and political relationships. She has published articles on the reception of Italian novelle in early modern Europe, the interaction between the novella and English early modern theatre, and the materiality of the book. She also works on the translation of medical texts in early modern England, and on the cultural and medical representation of love melancholy and hysteria.

Alessandra Petrina is Professor of English Literature at the Università di Padova, Italy. Her research focuses primarily on late-medieval and early modern intellectual history and on Anglo-Italian cultural relations. She has published The Kingis Quair (1997); Cultural Politics in Fifteenth-Century England: The Case of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (2004); Machiavelli in the British Isles: Two Early Modern Translations of the Prince (2009); and Petrarch’s Triumphi in the British Isles (2020). Her latest book is Shakespeare: guida ad Otello (2022).