1st Edition
A Bibliographical Catalogue of Italian Books Printed in England 1558–1603
Through entries on 291 Italian books (451 editions) published in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, covering the years 1558-1603, this catalogue represents a summary of current research and knowledge of diffusion of Italian culture on English literature in this period. It also provides a foundation for new work on Anglo-Italian relations in Elizabethan England. Mary Augusta Scott's 1916 Elizabethan Translations from the Italian forms the basis for the catalogue; Soko Tomita adds 59 new books and eliminates 23 of Scott's original entries. The information here is presented in a user-friendly and uncluttered manner, guided by Philip Gaskell's principles of bibliographical description; the volume includes bibliographical descriptions, tables, graphs, images, and two indices (general and title). In an attempt to restore each book to its original status, each entry is concerned not only with the physical book, but with the human elements guiding it through production: the relationship with the author, editor, translator, publisher, book-seller, and patron are all recounted as important players in the exploration of cultural significance. Renaissance Anglo-Italian relations were marked by both patriotism and xenophobia; this catalogue provides reliable and comprehensive information about books and publication as well as concrete evidence of what elements of Italian culture the English responded to and how Italian culture was acclimatized into Elizabethan England.
Biography
Soko Tomita holds an MA and a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, UK. She has taught English Language and Shakespeare at Takushoku University in Tokyo for 20 years, and is also now a Dean at the University. She is the author of several articles on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and Anglo-Italian relations in Elizabethan drama.
’I hope I have encouraged any library that has a concern for Tudor history, English culture, bibliography [...] and/or scholarship to obtain this book. Apart from its value to historians, it provides a first-class role model for any future bibliography.’ Reference Reviews ’The vast amount of Italian works and authors translated and published in English since the second half of the sixteenth century and collected in this beautiful, comprehensive and useful bibliography is the best testimony to the cultural phenomenon of fascination that the island experienced during this time... each (long) entry is on average two pages long with a very thorough and useful series of interesting details, useful also to Italian researchers... The bibliography includes an impressive section of more than one hundred pages of precious and functional appendices and indices, including a variety of graphs, listing Italian books published in London divided up by subject-matter and type, books written in Latin by Italian authors, printers and publishers, both Italian and others, and the sources and literary resources used. [This bibliography] is useful to all bibliographers and Italianists, Anglicists, historians of thought and of the Renaissance, of culture and institutions.’ Professor Anna Giulia Cavagna, TECA: Testimonianze, editoria, cultura, arte
