Readings are also listed by session.
Required Texts
Please observe the specific editions and translations while buying or borrowing these texts.
Alighieri, Dante. La Vita Nuova. Translated by Mark Musa. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0192839357.
———. Inferno. Translated by Allen Mandlebaum. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1982. ISBN: 0553213393.
———. Purgatorio. Translated by Allen Mandlebaum. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1983. ISBN: 055321344X.
———. Paradiso. Translated by Allen Mandlebaum. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN: 0553212044.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Translated by G. H. McWilliam. 2nd ed. London, UK and New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1972, 1995, 2003. ISBN: 0140449302.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Troilus and Criseyde. Edited by Barry Windeatt. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192832905.
Additionally, the following selection of works are available on the Web:
anchoranchoranchoranchorReadings by Session
SES #
topics
readings
1
The Courtly Love Tradition
Introduction
2
Domination and Desire
Selected authors. Selected Troubadour Lyrics.
3
Dolce Stil Nuovo
Dante. La Vita Nuova. i-xxi.
Guinizelli, Guido. Al cor gentil.
4
Ennobling Love: Sublimation and Subjection
Dante. La Vita Nuova. xxii-xlii.
Cavalcante, Guido. Sonnets. xxii and xxiii.
5
Historical Background: Secular Politics
6
Historical Background: Church Politics
7
Florentine History and the The Divine Comedy
Dante. Inferno. i-xi.
8
Epic and Romance
Dante. Inferno. xii-xxii.
9
Moral Perversion and Linguistic Distortion
Dante. Inferno. xxiii-xxxiv.
10
Confession and the Practice of Penitence
Dante. Purgatorio. i-xi.
11
Nature and the Power of Love
Dante. Purgatorio. xii-xxii.
12
Ecstatic Desire
Dante. Purgatorio. xxiii-xxxiii.
13
Moral Cosmology
Dante. Paradiso. i-xi.
14
Visions of the Ideal Society
Dante. Paradiso. xii-xxii.
15
The Ends of Language
Dante. Paradiso. xxiii-xxxiii.
16
The Plague of Language
Boccaccio. Decameron. Prologue; I. Introduction, i, ii, iii; II. vii, ix; III. i, iii, x.
17
Comedy and Tragedy
Boccaccio. Decameron. IV. i, ii, v; V. iv, x; VI. Introduction, v, vii, x, Conclusion.
18
Rhetoric and Redemption
Boccaccio. Decameron. VII. i, ii, vi, viii, ix; VIII. i, vii; IX. ii, vi, x; X. v, x, Epilogue.
19
Historical Background: The Fourteenth-Century Renaissance in England
20
Britain and the Myth of Trojan Origins
Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. I. 1-469.
21
Ricardian Politics
Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. I. 470-1090.
22
Free Will and Determinism
Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. II.
Petrarch, Sonnet cxxxii, “S’amor non è.”
23
Mediators and Mediation
Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. III.
24
Multiplicity and Indeterminacy
Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. IV.
25
Tragedy and Transcendence
Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde. V.
26
What Is This Thing Called Love?
Conclusion
