Synopses & Reviews
The small but influential community of Italians that took shape in England in the fifteenth century initially consisted of ecclesiastics, humanists, merchants, bankers, and artists. However, in the wake of the English Reformation, Italian Protestants joined other continental religious refugees in finding Tudor England to be a hospitable and productive haven, and they brought with them a cultural perspective informed by the ascendency among European elites of their vernacular language. This original and interdisciplinary study maintains that questions of language are at the centre of the circulation of ideas in the early modern period. Wyatt first examines the agency of this shifting community of immigrant Italians in the transmission of Italy's cultural patrimony and its impact on the nascent English nation; Part Two turns to the exemplary career of John Florio, the Italo-Englishman who worked as a language teacher, lexicographer, and translator in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
Synopsis
A study into the role played by Italians and Italian culture in the early modern period.
Synopsis
The small but influential community of Italians in England during the fifteenth century initially consisted of ecclesiastics, humanists, merchants, bankers, and artists. However, in the wake of the English Reformation, Italian Protestants joined other continental religious refugees in finding Tudor England to be a hospitable and productive haven. Michael Wyatt examines the agency of this shifting community of immigrant Italians in the transmission of Italy's cultural patrimony and its impact on the nascent English nation, as well as the exemplary career of John Florio, the Italo-Englishman who was a language teacher, lexicographer, and translator in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Part I. Italians In and On Early Modern England: 1. The Two Roses: a Venetian ambassadorial report; Italian humanists in Britain; Italian artists in England; England and the Roman church; Italian actors in Henry VIII's 'Great Matter'; 2. Reformations: Italian views of Henry VIII; Edward VI through one Italian's eyes; The Italian 'reformation' in England; Michelangelo Florio and the Tudor interregnum; Italians and the English Catholic queen; 3. La Regina Helisabetta: from Mary to Elizabeth; Elizabeth, Italian, and Italians; The status of the 'stranger' in England; The Italian mercantile presence in England; The Italian community in England. Part II. John Florio and the Cultural Politics of Translation: 4. Language Lessons; Roger Ascham contra Italy; Language instruction in Elizabethan England; John Florio's language pedagogy; The poetic 'lie' in the service of language learning; Proverbial lessons; Instruction in courtesy; The Italian book, made in England; A Shakespearean language lesson; 5. Worlds of Words: Alessandro Citolini and the Italian 'language question'; Grammars; Instruments of cultural control in Italy; Florio the lexicographer; Readings through Florio's dictionary; Gender and the language arts.