Translating Petrarch in Early Modern Britain: Canzoniere and Triumphi, c. 15301650
By (Author) Marie-Alice Belle
Edited by Riccardo Raimondo
Edited by Francesco Venturi
Manchester University Press
Manchester University Press
12th November 2025
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval
Literary studies: poetry and poets
Hardback
384
Width 170mm, Height 240mm
Translating Petrarch in early modern Britain gathers twelve essays by international scholars focusing on the translation of Petrarch's vernacular verse (Canzoniere and Triumphi) into English, from the Tudor age to the mid-seventeenth century (and beyond). Approaching translation as an interpretive process, but also a mode of literary emulation and cultural engagement with Petrarch's prestigious precedent, the collection explores the complex and interconnected trajectories of both poetic works in English and Scottish literary milieux. While situating each translation in its distinct historical, material, and literary context, the essays trace the reception of Petrarch's works in early modern Britain through the combined processes of linguistic and metric innovation, literary imitation, musical adaptation and cultural and material 'domestication'. The collection sheds light on the origins and development of early modern English Petrarchism as part of wider transnational and indeed, translational-European literary culture.
Marie-Alice Belle is Professor of Translation Studies at the Universite de Montreal and Associate researcher in English studies at Universite Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle
Riccardo Raimondo is Assistant Professor in French Linguistics and Translation Studies at the University of Catania
Francesco Venturi is Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Oslo (Norway) and at the University of L'Aquila