Law and mimesis in Boccaccio's Decameron : realism on trial / Justin Steinberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Steinberg, Justin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375. Decamerone.

Boccaccio, Giovanni.

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375--Knowledge--Law.

Law in literature.

Law and literature--Italy--History--To 1500.

Law and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 245 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

In Boccaccio's time, the Italian city-state began to take on a much more proactive role in prosecuting crime - one which superseded a largely communitarian, private approach. The emergence of the state-sponsored inquisitorial trial indeed haunts the legal proceedings staged in the Decameron. How, Justin Steinberg asks, does this significant juridical shift alter our perspective on Boccaccio's much-touted realism and literary self-consciousness? What can it tell us about how he views his predecessor, Dante: perhaps the world's most powerful inquisitorial judge? And to what extent does the Decameron shed light on the enduring role of verisimilitude and truth-seeming in our current legal system? The author explores these and other literary, philosophical, and ethical questions that Boccaccio raises in the Decameron's numerous trials. The book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval and early modern studies, literary theory and legal history.

Contents:

The novella on trial

The artist and the police

The widow and the sovereign

Torture and the sense of an ending

Another way of possessing

The author on trial.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 31 May 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009071130 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.