Milton's Italy

Anglo-Italian Literature, Travel, and Connections in Seventeenth-Century England

Nonfiction, History, Renaissance, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book Milton's Italy by Catherine Martin, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Catherine Martin ISBN: 9781317208297
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: December 1, 2016
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Catherine Martin
ISBN: 9781317208297
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: December 1, 2016
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

This book joins a growing trend toward transnational literary studies and revives a venerable tradition of Anglo-Italian scholarship centering on John Milton. Correcting misperceptions that have diminished the international dimensions of his life and work, it broadly surveys Milton’s Italianate studies, travels, poetics, politics, and religious convictions. While his debts to Machiavelli and other classical republicans are often noted, few contemporary critics have explored the Italian sources of his anti-papal, anti-episcopal, and anti-formalist religious outlook. Relying on Milton’s own testimony, this book explores its roots in Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and that great "Venetian enemy of the pope," Paolo Sarpi, thereby correcting a recent tendency to make native English contexts dominate his development. This tendency is partly due to a mistaken belief that Italy was in steep decline during and after Milton’s travels of 1638-1639, the period immediately before he produced his prose critiques of the English Church, its canon law, and its censorship. Yet these were also fundamentally "Italian" issues that he skillfully adapted to meet contemporary English needs, a practice enabled by his extraordinarily positive experience of the Italian language, cities, academies, and music, the latter of which ultimately influenced Milton’s "operatic" drama, Samson Agonistes. Besides republicanism and theology (radical doctrines of free grace and free will), equally strong influences treated here include Italian Neoplatonism, cosmology, and romance epic. By making these traditions his own, Milton became what John Steadman once described as an "Italianate Englishman" whose classical "literary tastes and critical orientation…were…to a considerable extent" molded by Italian critics (1976), a view that is fully credited and updated here.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This book joins a growing trend toward transnational literary studies and revives a venerable tradition of Anglo-Italian scholarship centering on John Milton. Correcting misperceptions that have diminished the international dimensions of his life and work, it broadly surveys Milton’s Italianate studies, travels, poetics, politics, and religious convictions. While his debts to Machiavelli and other classical republicans are often noted, few contemporary critics have explored the Italian sources of his anti-papal, anti-episcopal, and anti-formalist religious outlook. Relying on Milton’s own testimony, this book explores its roots in Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and that great "Venetian enemy of the pope," Paolo Sarpi, thereby correcting a recent tendency to make native English contexts dominate his development. This tendency is partly due to a mistaken belief that Italy was in steep decline during and after Milton’s travels of 1638-1639, the period immediately before he produced his prose critiques of the English Church, its canon law, and its censorship. Yet these were also fundamentally "Italian" issues that he skillfully adapted to meet contemporary English needs, a practice enabled by his extraordinarily positive experience of the Italian language, cities, academies, and music, the latter of which ultimately influenced Milton’s "operatic" drama, Samson Agonistes. Besides republicanism and theology (radical doctrines of free grace and free will), equally strong influences treated here include Italian Neoplatonism, cosmology, and romance epic. By making these traditions his own, Milton became what John Steadman once described as an "Italianate Englishman" whose classical "literary tastes and critical orientation…were…to a considerable extent" molded by Italian critics (1976), a view that is fully credited and updated here.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Tongzhi by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Citizen Participation in Global Environmental Governance by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Taekwondo by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book The Training of Noh Actors and The Dove by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Discourses of Global Climate Change by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Fifty Key Thinkers on the Holocaust and Genocide by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Sport, Coaching and Intellectual Disability by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Planning, Instruction, and Assessment by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Museum, Media, Message by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Phenomenology, Language and the Social Sciences by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Queer Politics in India: Towards Sexual Subaltern Subjects by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book Shakespeare at Work, 1592-1603 by Catherine Martin
Cover of the book The Dynamics of Opposition Cooperation in the Arab World by Catherine Martin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy