Scholars@Duke
Martin Eisner

Martin Eisner

William Hane Wannamaker 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 On research leave for 2025-26 academic year.  

Featured Works

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

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)

Book section · 2014 Featured Publication Link to item Cite

Boccaccio’s Renaissance

Book section · 2014 Featured Publication Cite

Boccaccio's Renaissance

Book section · 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

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

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