500 pp / Softcover / 2010 / ISBN 978-0-7727-2073-3 / $45.95
Edited by Elissa B. Weaver & translated by James Wyatt Cook
Chosen in December 2011 as “Translation of the Month” by Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index.
Antonia Pulci is the earliest known Italian woman playwright and the first to take her plays to press. Her sacre rappresentazioni (entertaining plays in rhymed octaves) are based on saints’ lives and Old and New Testament stories and feature a variety of female characters—some of her own invention. She was a gifted poet, conveying the religious message of her plays in pleasing rhythms and lively, credible dialogue. Her work enjoyed popular success, and certain of her plays remained in print throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This bilingual edition is the first critical edition of the five plays that can be securely attributed to Pulci: St. Domitilla, St. Guglielma, St. Francis, Prodigal Son, and Destruction of Saul and the Lament of David. Four of the plays appeared in an earlier English verse translation by James Cook, which has been thoroughly revised here.
To view an excerpt of this work, please click here (PDF).
Elissa B. Weaver is Professor of Italian, Emerita, University of Chicago.
James Wyatt Cook is Lagbo Trustees’ Professor Emeritus of English, Albion College.
Forum Italicum, 45:2 (Fall 2011), pp. 503-504. Reviewed by Federica Signoriello.
Renaissance Quarterly, 64:3 (Fall 2011), pp. 946-948. Reviewed by Patrizia Bettella.
The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies no longer sells or distributes books in “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series.” Starting July 2015, volumes can be purchased by individuals and institutions from the Chicago Distribution Center. Contact CDC by email (orders@press.uchicago.edu), by fax (800-621-8476 or 773-702-7212), or by phone (800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000).
500 pp / Softcover / 2010 / ISBN 978-0-7727-2073-3 / $45.95
