Description: Nick Havely examines the connections between Dante, the Franciscans and the papacy in respect to fundamental aspects of the Commedia. Shedding new light on Dante's poem, he offers a detailed account of the Franciscans in late Medieval and early Renaissance Italy, which will be of interest to scholars of church history as well as literary scholars.
Brief description: Nicholas Havely is senior lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. He is the translator of Chaucer's Boccaccio (1980, 1992); editor of The House of Fame (1994), Chaucer's Dream Poetry (1997) and Dante's Modern Afterlife (1998); and author of numerous articles on Italian and English medieval literature, including the chapter on `Literature in Italian, French and English' in volume VI of The New Cambridge Medieval History (2000).
Review Quotes: "Readers of Dante, historians of Franciscanism, and students and scholars of medieval Italian culture in the broadest sense will all find that this book has much to offer."
-S. Botterill, University of California, Berkeley, CHOICE