Synopses & Reviews
Boccaccio's Decameron and the Ciceronian Renaissance is a path-breaking study of a timeless masterpiece. Based on new readings of Cicero's late works, De legibus, De re publica, and De officiis, Michaela Paasche Grudin and Robert Grudin show that Ciceronian social thought provided Boccaccio with the basis for a radical reconsideration of his own culture, inspiring his call in the Decameron for a new awareness based on reason, nature, and the autonomy of the individual.
Review
"Based on an intimate familiarity with Cicero's works, no less than with Boccaccio's own, Grudin and Grudin's thoroughgoing study of the Decameron's literary debt to Cicero is a major contribution to our understanding of Boccaccio's masterpiece in particular and of his literary methodology in general. Indeed, the Grudins have provided the most thoughtful consideration of this important subject since Attilio Hortis. Without doubt, this volume is a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in Boccaccio and early Renaissance humanism." - Michael Papio, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Review
"Based on an intimate familiarity with Cicero's works, no less than with Boccaccio's own, Grudin and Grudin's thorough-going study of the Decameron's literary debt to Cicero is a major contribution to our understanding of Boccaccio's masterpiece in particular and of his literary methodology in general. Indeed, the Grudins have provided the most thoughtful consideration of this important subject since Attilio Hortis. Without doubt, this volume is a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in Boccaccio and early Renaissance humanism." - Michael Papio, associate professor of Italian, University of Massachusetts Amherst and President of the American Boccaccio Association
"In crisp, energetic, lucid, and humane prose, the Grudins tell a marvelous literary story of Boccaccio's engagement with Cicero—the man and the texts. They then forge a comprehensive reading of the Decameron in light of previously neglected Ciceronian texts and fragments that laid the foundation for Boccaccio's exploration of nature, governance, ethics, and virtue. Full of generous primary quotations, driven in its focus, and bold in its historical assertions, Grudin and Grudin's book contributes to our understanding not only of Humanism and Realism, but also of civics, culture, and Democracy itself." - Michael Calabrese, professor of English, California State University, Los Angeles
Review
"Boccaccio scholars and all readers interested in the Decameron who are tempted to dismiss this study for its title's last words - the Ciceronian Renaissance in the Decameron - should take heed: This substantial volume by Michaela Paasche and Robert Grudin, a wife and husband team of scholars, succeeds in offering what many other studies of comparable length have failed to do, namely, a comprehensive analysis of Boccaccio's masterpiece in its entirety from a novel perspective, which is appealing and which explains many challenging elements of Boccaccio's masterpiece." - Annali d'Italianistica
"By exposing Boccaccio's debt to Cicero, Grudin and Grudin offer a fresh and thought-provoking contribution to Decameron studies." - Speculum
Synopsis
Boccaccio's Decameron and the Ciceronian Renaissance is a path-breaking study of a timeless masterpiece. Based on new readings of Cicero's late works, De legibus, De re publica, and De officiis, Michaela Paasche Grudin and Robert Grudin show that Ciceronian social thought provided Boccaccio with the basis for a radical reconsideration of his own culture, inspiring his call in the Decameron for a new awareness based on reason, nature, and the autonomy of the individual.
Synopsis
Boccaccio's Decameron and the Ciceronian Renaissance demonstrates that Boccaccio's puzzling masterpiece takes on organic consistency when viewed as an early modern adaptation of a pre-Christian, humanistic vision.
About the Author
Michaela Paasche Grudin is a professor emerita at Lewis and Clark College. She is the author of Chaucer and the Politics of Discourse and her essays, including the recent 'Making War on the Widow: Boccaccio's Il Corbaccio and Florentine Liberty,' have appeared in PMLA, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, The Chaucer Review, Speculum, and Viator.
Robert Grudin is a professor emeritus at the University of Oregon. His major writings—academic, nonfiction, and fiction—concern issues relating to the idea of liberty. He is the author of Mighty Opposites: Shakespeare and Renaissance Contrariety; The Grace of Great Things; Book: A Novel; Design and Truth; and article 'Humanism' in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: Cicero and the Decameron
Ingegno: The Individual and Authority: Decameron Day I
Ingegno: Wit as the Soul of Action: Day II
Ingegno: Wit as Misdirection and Iconoclasm: Day III
Reason's Debt to Passion: Day IV
The Shock of Recognition: Day V
Misrule and Inspiration: Day VI
Valley of Ingegno: Day VII
Boccaccio's Ship of Fools: Day VIII
Truth, Lie and Eloquence: Day IX
The Ciceronian Synthesis and 'Author's Conclusion:' Day X
The Decameron and Italian Culture
Bibliography