Martin Eisner
Professor of Romance Studies
Martin Eisner is Chair of Romance Studies and Professor of Italian at Duke University. He specializes in medieval Italian literature, particularly the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, as well as the history of the book and media.
He is the author of Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature (Cambridge UP, 2013) and Dante's New Life of the Book (Oxford UP, forthcoming). He is currently working on a biography of Boccaccio for Reaktion Books's Renaissance Lives series. With a view to the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, he continues to develo the online research project Dante’s Library. His articles on Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Machiavelli have appeared in PMLA, Renaissance Quarterly, Dante Studies, Mediaevalia, California Italian Studies, Quaderni d’Italianistica, Annali d’Italianistica and Le Tre Corone. His research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the American Academy in Rome, the American Philosophical Association, and the Fulbright Foundation.
Office Hours
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2020
Contact Information
- 05 Language Center, Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708-0257
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martin.eisner@duke.edu
(919) 660-3129
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Publications
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Columbia University 2005
- M.Phil., Columbia University 2002
- B.A., Columbia University 1999
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Duke Appointment History
- Associate Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013 - 2020
- Assistant Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2005 - 2013
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Leadership & Clinical Positions at Duke
- Chair of Romance Studies, 2020-
- Recognition
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Awards & Honors
- Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome (Medieval Competition) 2013-14. American Academy in Rome. December 2013
- Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome (Renaissance Competition). American Academy in Rome. 2013
- Rome Prize. American Academy In Rome. 2013
- Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Romance Studies. Unknown. April 2008
- Institute of Advanced Study, Member. Unknown. 2008
- Franklin Grants. American Philosophical Society. 2007
- School of Historical Studies/ Members. Institute for Advanced Study. 2007
- Expertise
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Subject Headings
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Global Scholarship
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Expertise
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Research
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- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Eisner, Martin, and David Lummus, eds. A Boccaccian Renaissance Essays on the Early Modern Impact of Giovanni Boccaccio and His Works. University of Notre Dame Pess, 2019.
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Eisner, Martin, Valerio Cappozzo, and Timothy Kircher, eds. Boccaccio and His World. Special Issue of Heliotropia, vol. 15, 2018.Link to Item
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Eisner, Martin. Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature: Dante, Petrarch, Cavalcanti, and the Authority of the Vernacular. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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Academic Articles
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Eisner, M. “Machiavelli in paradise: How reading dante and ovid shaped the prince.” Pmla 134, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2019.134.1.35.Full Text
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Eisner, Martin. “Dante's Ballata: The Personification of Poetry and the Authority of the Vernacular in the Vita Nuova.” Mediaevalia 39, no. 1 (2018): 299–318. https://doi.org/10.1353/mdi.2018.0010.Full Text
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Eisner, Martin. “A Singular Boccaccio: Defending and Defining Poetry in the Decameron and Genealogie.” Quaderni D Italianistica 38 (2017): 179–99.Link to Item
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Eisner, M. G. “Boccaccio e l’invenzione della letteratura italiana.” Le Tre Corone 1 (2014): 11–26.Open Access Copy
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Eisner, M. “In the labyrinth of the library: Petrarch's Cicero, Dante's Virgil, and the historiography of the Renaissance.” Renaissance Quarterly 67, no. 3 (January 1, 2014): 755–90. https://doi.org/10.1086/678774.Full Text Open Access Copy
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Eisner, M. G. “The Word Made Flesh in Inferno 5: Francesca Reading and the Figure of the Annunciation in Dante’s Commedia.” Dante Studies, 2013.Open Access Copy
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Eisner, M. G. “Eroticizing Theology in Day Three and the Poetics of the Decameron.” Annali D’Italianistica 31 (2013): 207–24.Open Access Copy
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Eisner, Martin G. “The Return to Philology and the Future of Literary Criticism: Reading the Temporality of Literature in Auerbach, Benjamin, and Dante.” California Italian Studies, December 2011.Open Access Copy
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Eisner, M., and M. Schachter. “Libido Sciendi: Apuleius, Boccaccio and the History of Sexuality (null).” Pmla, May 2009.
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Eisner, Martin. “Petrarch Reading Boccaccio: Revisiting the Genesis of the Triumphi.” Edited by Teodolinda Barolini and H Wayne Storey, 2007.
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Book Sections
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Eisner, M. G. “Dante and the Author of the Decameron: Love, Literature, and Authority in Boccaccio.” In The Oxford Handbook to Chaucer, edited by Suzanne Akbari and James Simpson. Oxford University Press, 2020.
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Eisner, Martin. “The Language of Women in the World of God: Vernacularization.” In Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature, 2020.
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Eisner, M. “Boccaccio’s Renaissance.” In Boccaccio and the European Literary Tradition, 45–55. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2014.
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Eisner, M. “Boccaccio's Renaissance.” In Boccaccio and the European Literary Tradition, edited by P. Boitani and E. Di Rocco, 45–55. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2014.
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Eisner, Martin. “The Tale of Ferondo’s Purgatory (III.8).” In The Decameron: Third Day, edited by Pier Massimo Forni and Francesco Ciabattoni, 153–73. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.Link to Item
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Eisner, Martin G. “Giovanni Boccaccio "Commedia" and "Dante Alighieri".” edited by Choon Leong Seow, Hermann Spieckermann, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Bernard McGinn, Hans-Josef Klauck, and Eric Ziolkowski. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
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Eisner, Martin G. ““Giovanni Boccaccio” "Commedia" and "Dante Alighieri".” In The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception, edited by Choon Leong Seow, Hermann Spieckermann, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Bernard McGinn, Hans-Josef Klauck, and Eric Ziolkowski. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
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Eisner, M. “Chapter Five : Petrarch Reading Boccaccio: Revisiting the Genesis of the Triumphi.” In Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, 31:131–46, 2007.
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Eisner, Martin. “Dante and the Spectrum of Medieval Vernacular Poetry.” In.” In Approaches to Teaching Dante, edited by Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson. New York: Modern Language Association, n.d.
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Eisner, Martin. “Bridge Essay: Vernacularization and World Literature: The Language of Women in the World of God,” 1–7. Wiley, n.d. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118635193.ctwl0055.Full Text
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Book Reviews
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Eisner, Martin. “Reading Dante in Renaissance Italy: Florence, Venice and the “Divine Poet.” Simon Gilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xiv + 434 pp. $120.” Renaissance Quarterly. Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/rqx.2019.464.Full Text
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Eisner, Martin. “Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works. Victoria Kirkham, Michael Sherberg, and Janet Levarie Smarr, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. xix + 556 pp. $50.” Renaissance Quarterly. Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2015. https://doi.org/10.1086/683948.Full Text
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Eisner, M. G. “Rev. of Bonnie Mak, How the Page Matters.” Renaissance Quarterly, 2013.
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Eisner, M. G. “Rev. of Rhiannon Daniels, Boccaccio and the Book.” Renaissance Quarterly, 2010.
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Eisner, M. G. “Rev. of Carol Lansing, Power and Purity.” H Italy., 2010.
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Eisner, Martin. “Rhiannon Daniels. Boccaccio and the Book: Production and Reading in Italy 1340–1520. Italian Perspectives 19. London: Legenda, 2009. xi + 229 pp. $89.50.. ISBN: 978–1–906540–49–4.” Renaissance Quarterly. Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2010. https://doi.org/10.1086/655234.Full Text Open Access Copy
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Eisner, Martin G. “Review of Vincenzo Traversa, ed. and trans. Giovanni Boccaccio, Theseid of the Nuptials of Emilia (Teseida delle nozze di Emilia).” Heliotropia, 2008.
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Eisner, Martin G. “Review of Prue Shaw, ed. Dante: Monarchia on CD-ROM.” The Medieval Review, 2008.
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- ITALIAN 338S: Boccaccio's Decameron 2021
- ITALIAN 338SP: Boccaccio's Decameron - Preceptorial 2021
- ITALIAN 393: Research Independent Study 2021
- ITALIAN 742S: Boccaccio's Decameron 2021
- MEDREN 338S: Boccaccio's Decameron 2021
- HISTORY 253: Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise 2020
- HISTORY 405: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- HISTORY 743: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- ITALIAN 393: Research Independent Study 2020
- ITALIAN 481: Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise 2020
- ITALIAN 483: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- ITALIAN 743: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- LIT 483: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- LIT 743: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- MEDREN 473: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- POLSCI 483: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- POLSCI 752: What Machiavelli Really Says 2020
- RELIGION 262: Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise 2020
- ITALIAN 89S: First Year Seminar in Italian 2019
- ITALIAN 493: Research Independent Study 2019
- ITALIAN 584S: Boccaccio Studies 2019
- ITALIAN 791: Special Readings 2019
- LIT 89S: First-Year Seminar 2019
- MEDREN 89S: First-Year Seminar 2019
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- “Boccaccio in Venice: The 1363 Mission to Petrarch.” Boccaccio Veneto: Cultural crossing in the Medieval Mediterranean.". June 1, 2013 2013
- “Boccaccio’s Open Book: Chigi L V 176 and the Invention of Italian Literature.”. June 1, 2013 2013
- Mediating Dante: Boccaccio and the Transformation of a Modern Author.. May 1, 2013 2013
- Boccaccio and the Authority of Literature. October 1, 2011 2011
- The Codex and the Canon: Boccaccio and the Making of Dante, Petrarch, and Cavalcanti. October 1, 2011 2011
- The ‘Careless’ Scribe: Boccaccio’s Chigi Codex and the Invention of Italian Literature. April 1, 2011 2011
- “Boccaccio on Dante and Truth in Ferondo’s Purgatory (Decameron III.8),” Lectura Boccaccii single-speaker session. MLA. January 1, 2011 2011
- “Boccaccio’s Experiments with the Material Book.” Material Philology and the Neo-Latin Text.. October 1, 2010 2010
- “A Singular Boccaccio.” Triennial International Boccaccio Conference. April 1, 2010 2010
- Petrarch’s Influence on Dante: The Multiple Temporalities of Literary History. April 1, 2009 2009
- World Literature without Philology?: Rethinking the Shape of Literary History with Auerbach and Dante.”. April 1, 2008 2008
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Service to the Profession
- External Reader, Digitial Philology. December 3, 2013 2013
- External Reader, Exemplaria Spring 2013. December 3, 2013 2013
- External Reader, University of Chicago Press. 2012 2012
- External Reader for University of Toronto Press. December 4, 2011 2011
- External Reader for Yale University Press. March 19, 2008 2008
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