Reconsidering Boccaccio: Medieval Contexts and Global Intertexts. Olivia Holmes and Dana E. Stewart, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. xii + 440 pp. $95.
Landino’s, and critical interventions, including Bembo’s. Chapters 3 and 4 then investigate Dante’s place in Florentine academies in the second half of the century, while chapters 5 and 6 explore Venetian print culture and commentary in the same period. Throughout these chapters, Gilson brings new attention to Dante’s non-Commedia works, especially the Convivio, illuminating the significance of the various paratextual features that distinguish different editions. The examination of these publishing contexts reveals the intriguing mix of liturgical, philosophical, and literary contexts in which Dante circulated and the specific audiences for whom editions were produced, including female readers. Gilson is especially adept at identifying unspoken engagements, such as when a given commentator criticizes another interpretation without explicitly mentioning the source. Examining the impact of the questione della lingua, religious reform, and Neo-Aristotelian classicism on Dante’s reception, this analysis of Dante’s fortuna in sixteenth-century Florence and Venice offers both a valuable guide and a stimulus for future research.