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Andrea da Barberino and the Language of Chivalry
In the first definitive study of the work of Andrea da Barberino (c. 1371-1431), Gloria Allaire is a philological master-sleuth in search of the prolific but elusive Florentine medieval chivalric narrator whose place at the juncture between the early Boccaccio and the Renaissance masters Boiardo and Ariosto establishes him as a kind of Italian Chrétien de Troyes. The result of exhaustive research and several important new discoveries, Allaire’s study is at the same time a groundbreaking approach to philological research. In it she argues for the attribution of two previously indeterminate chivalric romances, makes a new attribution for an unedited, highly original Rinaldo, and convincingly argues against Andrea’s authorship of Rambaldo. Moreover, her painstaking tracking of narrative and generic influences delineates a clear progression from Andrea to late medieval and early Renaissance masterpieces. The literary lineage also extends farther back: Andrea reworked a number of French epics and romances, and French medievalists will be interested to see later incarnations of texts well known to them. While Andrea’s works are widely anthologized and recurrently the subject of journal articles, this is the first book-length volume to tackle his narrative art. It is sure to be of interest to medievalists, Italianists, specialists in romance linguistics, and anyone interested in watching the unfolding of an intricate and accomplished piece of philological detective work.
Gloria Allaire is visiting assistant professor of Italian at Ohio University, Athens. She has published articles in numerous journals including Italica, Lettere Italiane, Viator, and Scriptorium and is editor of the forthcoming Il Tristano panciatichiano: Text and Translation.
ISBN 0-8130-1528-6
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"Andrea da Barberino and the Language of Chivalry offers the reader a wealth of linguistic, structural, and textual analysis that is literally unprecedented for this corpus. . . . [It] will give comparative medieval scholars -- historians and literary historians alike -- the information they need to arrive at an informed understanding of chivalry as an ideal and a practice in different times and places in medieval and early modern Europe." -- The Medieval Review "A fundamental contribution [to] the
understanding of one of the most prolific authors of
chivalric literature in the fifteenth century. . . . It
will remain the standard text. . . . Valuable not only
for its interpretive analysis, but also as an example of
how philological research should be
conducted."--Massimo Ciavolella, University of
Toronto "Allaire’s style is simple, rigorous, and informative, yet without monotony. . . . A most enjoyable reading."--Maria Predelli, McGill University, Montreal
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