Book review: David Bowe, Poetry in Dialogue in the Duecento and Dante

Abstract

as “a powerful absent-presence” in the novella (p. 226). Following the maritime cycles analyzed by Fernand Braudel, Morosini focuses on the structural elements of the Mediterranean in the narrative. The Orientalizing depiction of the dogana and the public bagno in Palermo represents the cultural tensions of the seaport; Iancofiore is constructed as the conflation of both the classical Sirens and the Homeric Circe, as mediated through their medieval exegetes; and Salabaetto’s mercantile guile is modeled as “a modern Ulysses” (p. 237) in the final denouement. The insightful and erudite readings of the authors manage to balance their hermeneutical effort with an exact assessment of previous scholarship. The interdisciplinary focus of the scholars—from legal discourse, to medical thought, to socio-economic policies, and metaliterary analyses—breathes fresh air into the critical debates, making the volume a fundamental contribution to the field of Boccaccio Studies that will open new directions for research and teaching on the Decameron.