The Italian critic Francesco De Sanctis (1817-1883) identified Italianness with backwardness in order to oppose it to European modernity and promote a process of Europeanization of Italy. Two targets stood out in his attack on Italian backwardness: Chivalry and the Academies. A century and a half later we are able to acknowledge the continuity rather than the break between Italian early modernity and European modernity, revisiting a biased paradigm that no longer works and reassessing the historical importance of Chivalry and the Academies as cultural mediators. Divided into three sections devoted to chivalric poems, academic debates and Anglo-Italian relations, and dedicated to the work of Jane E. Everson, who has highly contributed to the re-evaluation of Italian early modernity, this volume gathers together some of the major experts of early modern Italy and highlights the relevance of Italian early modernity in framing and shaping European culture well into our contemporary world.

Jane E. Everson is Professor Emerita of Italian at Royal Holloway University of London. Stefano Jossa is Reader in Italian, and Giuliana Pieri Professor of Italian and the Visual Arts, at Royal Holloway University of London