Scholars@Duke
Martin Eisner

Martin Eisner

Professor of Romance Studies
Romance Studies
martin.eisner@duke.edu
Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708-0257
205 Language Center, Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708
Office hours

Selected Publications

Dante's New Life of the Book A Philology of World Literature

Book · March 18, 2021 Dante's New Life of the Book examines Dante's Vita nuova through its transformations in manuscripts, printed books, translations, and adaptations. ... Cite

Dante's New Life of the Book A Philology of World Literature

Book · March 2021 Dante's New Life of the Book examines Dante's Vita nuova through its transformations in manuscripts, printed books, translations, and adaptations. ... Cite

Vernacularization and World Literature: The Language of Women in the World of God

Chapter · 2020 Given Dante's prominent place in discussions of vernacularization, this chapter reconsiders the substance of Dante's theories and their relationship to his poetic practice. It proposes an investigation of vernacularization that encompasses not only the cho ... Full text Cite

A Boccaccian Renaissance Essays on the Early Modern Impact of Giovanni Boccaccio and His Works

Book · June 25, 2019 Featured Publication The essays investigate what it means to follow a Boccaccian model, in tandem with or in place of ancient authors such as Vergil or Cicero, or modern poets such as Dante or Petrarch. ... Cite

Machiavelli in paradise: How reading dante and ovid shaped the prince

Journal Article PMLA · January 1, 2019 Featured Publication Full text Cite

Boccaccio and His World

Book · 2018 special issue of Heliotropia, vol 15 (2018). ... Link to item Cite

In the labyrinth of the library: Petrarch's Cicero, Dante's Virgil, and the historiography of the Renaissance

Journal Article Renaissance Quarterly · September 1, 2014 Featured Publication Petrarch's 1345 discovery of Cicero's personal letters in Verona has long been regarded as a foundational moment in the historiography of the Renaissance. In the traditional view, Petrarch's discovery engenders a new historical self-consciousness that has ... Full text Open Access Cite

Boccaccio e l’invenzione della letteratura italiana

Journal Article · 2014 Featured Publication Open Access Cite

The Tale of Ferondo’s Purgatory (III.8)

Chapter · 2014 Featured Publication Link to item Cite

Boccaccio’s Renaissance

Chapter · 2014 Featured Publication Cite

Boccaccio's Renaissance

Chapter · 2014 Featured Publication Cite

Eroticizing Theology in Day Three and the Poetics of the Decameron

Journal Article · 2013 Featured Publication This essay argues that the fusion of the erotic and religious that characterizes Day Three of the Decameron constitutes a central element in Boccaccio’s poetics, as expressed both in the (significantly contiguous with Day Three) Introduction to Day Four, w ... Open Access Cite

Rev. of Bonnie Mak, How the Page Matters.

Other Renaissance Quarterly · 2013 Cite

Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature: Dante, Petrarch, Cavalcanti, and the Authority of the Vernacular

Book · 2013 Featured Publication Examines Boccaccio's pivotal role in legitimizing the vernacular literature of Dante, Petrarch and Cavalcanti through argument, narrative and transcription. Introduction: Boccaccio between Dante and Petrarch: cultivating vernacular literary community in t ... Cite

Rev. of Rhiannon Daniels, Boccaccio and the Book.

Other Renaissance Quarterly · 2010 Cite

Libido Sciendi: Apuleius, Boccaccio and the History of Sexuality

Journal Article PMLA · May 2009 Featured Publication This essay contributes to recent debates in the study of the history of sexuality that have developed out of a comparison of a story from Apuleius’ Golden Ass and its transformation by Boccaccio in the Decameron. Addressing questions of book history, philo ... Cite