This fourth volume of John Addington Symonds’s celebrated Renaissance in Italy examines Italian literature, here in its first part. Symonds traces the development of Italian writing from its medieval roots through the early Renaissance, exploring the works of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and their successors. He situates the great authors within the cultural and intellectual ferment that carried Italy from the Middle Ages into the new age of humanism and learning.
A masterwork of Victorian cultural history, the volume combines literary criticism with vivid evocation of the Italian spirit, illuminating how medieval traditions gave way to the Renaissance. Symonds writes with eloquence and deep sympathy for his subject. Readers interested in Italian literature, Dante and Petrarch, or the transition from medieval to Renaissance culture will find it rewarding. This free EPUB edition makes available a key volume of Symonds’s classic history of the Italian Renaissance.