In answering questions such as what is 'modern' in literary criticism since the beginnings of the Early Modern age, this book does not follow the lines of René Wellek's famous History of Modern Criticism. It does not re-examine the history of literary theories and poetics. It rather focuses on the concepts and uses of what can be called 'practical criticism' (Buchkritik) and the historicity of its institutional and categorical frames of references. Viewing them as fundamental structures of literary production, reception and communication, this study traces the emergence of a temporalization of cultural processing, the periodical organization of a critical response as published in the new medium of the journal, and the development of different uses and functions of the literary canon. In analysis, two basic paradigms of criticism have to be confronted: the classical model of a critica perennis, as part of grammatica as an institution of learning, and the new conception and practice of critique mondaine, which emerges as an institution in its own right during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe.

‘And by now, mind, it’s too late to redeem your debts by giving up guzzling.’ Dante's poetic correspondence (or tenzone) with Forese Donati, a relative of his wife, was rife with crude insults: the two men derided one another on topics ranging from sexual dysfunction and cowardice to poverty and thievery. But in his Commedia, rather than denying this correspondence, Dante repeatedly acknowledged and evoked the memory of his youthful put-downs. Dante's Tenzone with Forese Donati examines the lasting impact of these sonnets on Dante's writings and Italian literary culture, notably in the work of Giovanni Boccaccio. Fabian Alfie expands on derision as an ethical dimension of medieval literature, both facilitating the reprehension of vice and encouraging ongoing debates about the true nature of nobility. Outlining a broad perspective on the uses of literary insult, Dante's Tenzone with Forese Donati also provides an evocative glimpse of Dante's day-to-day life in the twelfth century.

Luigi Tansillo is one of the most interesting and representative of the Petrarchist poets active in Naples during the mid-sixteenth century. This study reconsiders his substantial lyric corpus from a variety of perspectives, opening with a survey of the textual tradition and previous critical work on his verse. Four of Tansillo's lyric collections are examined in depth, and read from narrative and thematic points of view. Particular emphasis is placed on the evolution of the collections, by exploring the ways in which very different types of narrative implying different underlying poetics can be constructed using often identical poems. Parallel to this is a consideration of Tansillo's place within the broader literary historical context, and his use of verse as a political and ideological tool in the service of the Spanish viceroy of Naples. These detailed studies of individual poetic sequences are complemented by an analysis of Tansillo's poetic language within the context of Neapolitan reactions to the questione della lingua, and of his contribution to creating a fixed iconology for the representation of jealousy in the Renaissance and Baroque lyric.

The Normans have long been recognised as one of the most dynamic forces within medieval western Europe. With a reputation for aggression and conquest, they rapidly expanded their powerbase from Normandy, and by the end of the twelfth century had established themselves in positions of strength from England to Sicily, Antioch to Dublin. Yet, despite this success recent scholarship has begun to question the ’Norman Achievement’ and look again at the degree to which a single Norman cultural identity existed across so diverse a territory. To explore this idea further, all the essays in this volume look at questions of Norman traditions in some of the peripheral Norman dominions. In response to recent developments in cultural studies the volume uses the concepts of ’tradition’ and ’heritage’ to question the notion of a stable pan-European Norman culture or identity, and instead reveals the degrees to which Normans adopted and adapted to local conditions, customs and requirements in order to form their own localised cultural heritage. Divided into two sections, the volume begins with eight chapters focusing on Norman Sicily. These essays demonstrate both the degree of cultural intermingling that made this kingdom an extraordinary paradigm in this regard, and how the Normans began to develop their own distinct origin myths that diverged from those of Norman France and England. The second section of the volume provides four essays that explore Norman ethnicity and identity more broadly, including two looking at Norman communities on the opposite side of Europe to the Kingdom of Sicily: Ireland and the Scandinavian settlements in the Kievan Rus. Taken as a whole the volume provides a fascinating assessment of the construction and malleability of Norman identities in transcultural settings. By exploring these issues through the tradition and heritage of the Norman’s ’peripheral’ dominions, a much more sophisticated understanding can be gained, not only of th