Pietro Bembo: A Life in Laurels and Scarlet
Marco Faini
Legenda (General Series) •15 May 2017

  • ‘Faini has managed very effectively the task of providing an introduction to Bembo’s life and work that is insightful yet relatively succinct and accessible. He gives a good sense of the complexity of underlying issues without overwhelming readers with detail. His writing is engaging and attentive to descriptive effect... Helpfully and attractively illustrated.’ — Brian Richardson, Modern Language Review 113.4, October 2018, 884-86 (full text online)
  • ‘As this slim but elegant volume highlights, the life of Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) bridges the transition in Italy from the height of the Renaissance into the early stages of the Catholic Reformation, not simply in terms of chronology but also in his career trajectory... This is a beautifully illustrated work, with more than 30 images, many of which are in colour. It is an engaging treatment and an excellent introduction to this significant figure.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 54.2, July 2019, 266 (full text online)
  • ‘La rédaction de cette biographie a été confiée à un jeune et brillant chercheur, Fellow de la Villa I Tatti, un des meilleurs connaisseurs du personnage. Marco Faini s'est acquitté de cette tâche difficile avec une réelle finesse littéraire.’ — Jean Balsamo, Bibliothèque d’humanisme et Renaissance 79.1, 2017, 262-65

The Italian Renaissance: A Zest for Life
Edited by Michel Jeanneret and Nicolas Ducimetière
Legenda (General Series) •15 May 2017

  • ‘This is a Renaissance that triumphantly emerges from the dark ages of medieval Europe, bringing with it the birth of an ideal society guided by beauty and love, thus giving rise to one of the most extraordinary creative seasons of poetry, architecture, and art that the world has ever known... Yves Bonnefoy gives a moving account of his youthful discovery, in a still deserted post-war Florence, of the Brancacci Chapel... The most remarkable pages, however, of these many and memorable contributions are those by Michel Butor, sadly deceased in the same year in which the book was published. Always concerned with ‘micro-événements’ [...] Butor simply fixes his (and our) attention on every tiny detail of Antonello da Messina’s Renaissance image of the Middle Ages in his painting of Saint Jerome in his Study, reading (one presumes) his own historic translation of the Bible. The sense of this descriptive tour de force becomes clear in a final poem in which Butor identifies himself with Antonello.’ — Hilary Gatti, Modern Language Review 113.4, October 2018, 887-89 (full text online)

Cultural Reception, Translation and Transformation from Medieval to Modern Italy: Essays in Honour of Martin McLaughlin
Edited by Guido Bonsaver, Brian Richardson, and Giuseppe Stellardi
Legenda (General Series) •17 May 2017

  • ‘A remarkable unified collection... [the essays] may be read in any order, so rich and abundant are the resonances among them.’ — Carmine G. Di Biase, Times Literary Supplement 8 May 2018
  • ‘Zygmunt G. Barański presents a deeply contextualized understanding of the Orpheus myth in Petrarch’s Canzoniere, taking into account Virgilian and Ovidian antecedents, and the traces of their elaboration in works including the Bucolicum carmen and Familiares. At the heart of his essay, Barański boldly, but not unpersuasively, asserts Petrarch’s lyric collection of fragments to be “the great overlooked Orphic text of the Western tradition”. Brian Richardson’s essay is also among the most ambitious, tackling a massive quantity of Renaissance Italian poetic production—extempore Latin and vernacular lyric compositions—and he does so with aplomb, providing perhaps the first categorization with a qualitative/theoretical valuation of this important but almost entirely overlooked subgenre of poetry... Meriting special distinction, Peter Hainsworth’s contribution rescues John Dickson Batten’s illustrations to Dante’s Inferno (1897–1900) from their relative oblivion.’ — Sherry Roush, Renaissance Quarterly 71.9, October 2018, 1193-95
  • ‘The scope, historical locus and chronological ambition of the present volume are exceptionally wide and rich... The quality of the contributions is invariably high and all are case-studies relevant to the book’s central preoccupation with cultural contact and interchange... an admirable collection, full of stimulus and surprises, handsomely produced by Legenda.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 54.2, July 2019, 265-66 (full text online)
  • ‘This volume brings to mind one of Calvino’s own definitions, in his Why Read The Classics?: ‘The classics are those books which come to us bearing the aura of previous interpretations, and trailing behind them the traces they have left in the culture or cultures (or just in the language and customs) through which they have passed’ (McLaughlin’s translation). The volume invites readers into the palimpsest that is Italian culture, which is to say, among other things, its imitations, its intertextuality and transmediality, and its translations.’ — Antonella Braida, Translation and Literature 29, 2020, 291-96 (full text online)
  • ‘The volume reads as a user guide to the most updated views on literary theory and cultural studies, demonstrating how ‘open’ a field Italian studies has become in recent years. Texts—in a semiological sense, hence comprising all meaningful artefacts of culture—are scrutinized through a wide range of approaches, including linguistic, philological, thematic, intertextual, historical, sociological, comparative. and hermeneutical.’ — Oscar Schiavone, Modern Language Review 115.3, July 2020, 737-41 (full text online)

Arthur Golding’s A Moral Fabletalk and Other Renaissance Fable Translations
Edited by Liza Blake and Kathryn Vomero Santos
Tudor and Stuart Translations 12•3 January 2017

  • ‘An excellent overview of fable and its literary and educational significance for nearly two centuries, from William Caxton’s edition of 1484 to John Ogilby’s fables, last printed in 1675... this is an important book that every library should have, not only for the texts that it presents but also because it shows the remarkable range of cultural work done by fable during the long Renaissance.’ — Edward Wheatley, Renaissance Quarterly 2018, 70.4, 1652-54
  • ‘Overall, this collection is a significant contribution to the study of English Renaissance translations, an exceptional tool to understand the function of Aesopian fables in the early modern period, and an accessible new source for scholars interested in Golding's work. It would also work well in upper-level undergraduate courses, providing students with a fascinating and illuminating view of the world of Aesopian fables' translation. This magnificent volume will be an excellent addition for any library.’ — Florinda Ruiz, Sixteenth Century Journal XLVIII:3, 2017, 813-15
  • ‘Exhibits the same virtues as Kendal’s edition [of Chapman's Homer, TST 21]. The editors’ inclusion of a variety of Aesopian fables from the late fifteenth through the mid-seventeenth century, together with good reproductions of contemporary engravings and woodcuts, beautifully demonstrates the malleability of the genre.’ — Lowell Gallagher, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 58.1, Winter 2018, 219-77
  • ‘The collection’s extensive black-and-white woodcut and engraving reproductions, which appear on almost every other page, contribute substantially to its aesthetic appeal, while its large format and sturdy construction make it well worth the reasonable purchase price. Overall, this literally fabulous collection will make a welcome addition and substantial contribution to any scholarly library.’ — Mark Albert Johnston, Renaissance and Reformation 41.1, Winter 2018, 173-75
  • ‘The individual fables are supplemented by an index, a glossary of lesser-known terms, a comprehensive bibliography, and summaries of the publication history of each text, all of which help make the volume invaluable as a reference work.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 54.1, 2018, 115
  • ‘The fables are all illustrated with beautifully clear images taken from old texts. There is a concise and useful introduction covering literary- theoretical and -historical aspects of the fable as a kind of writing, and also the editorial principles used in preparing the texts... The new MHRA edition is justified on the grounds of its greater availability (it costs £35), and also because it contains a lot more material in the form of the fables by other authors. The range of authors and texts offered by the new edition is surely what will make it so valuable (and cheap) an edition to any university library.’ — Mike Pincombe, Spenser Review 48.2.14, Spring-Summer 2018
  • ‘This recent volume from the MHRA’s series Tudor & Stuart Translations offers a fascinating insight into the production, circulation, and consumption of the genre of the fable, often neglected in early modern scholarship. The editors perform a valuable service in recognizing that much research still remains to be executed in this area of English Studies, an area which is all too often overshadowed by better- established traditions of theorization and criticism in other European languages.’ — Andrew Hiscock, Modern Language Review 114.1, January 2019, 113-15 (full text online)

Robert Garnier in Elizabethan England: Mary Sidney Herbert’s Antonius and Thomas Kyd’s Cornelia
Edited by Marie-Alice Belle and Line Cottegnies
Tudor and Stuart Translations 16•11 September 2017

  • ‘By editing the plays as translations, the edition’s attention to intertextuality and early modern commonplacing renews our sense of these plays’ significance in their own right, as well as in relation to the Sidney Circle, to contemporary women’s writing, and to fully theatrical dramas like Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy.’ — Peter Auger, Translation and Literature 27, 2019, 353-60 (full text online)
  • ‘Altogether, this volume is an excellent critical edition: solidly researched, sensibly organized, and practical to use. It contains a comprehensive bibliography of the most up-to-date research in both French and English and draws upon this foundation abundantly in its critical commentary. It thereby provides readers with all the background necessary to understand and appreciate the plays, highlights the wide array of questions and studies they have already inspired, and provides an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to explore them in greater depth.’ — Luke Arnason, Renaissance and Reformation 41.4, Autumn 2018, 206-208

George Chapman: Homer's Iliad
Edited by Robert S. Miola
Tudor and Stuart Translations 20•11 September 2017

  • ‘The MHRA edition vastly improves our ability to appreciate Chapman’s Homer as English poetry. The new edition presents a far more accessible text of Chapman’s Homer than any previous edition... The new MHRA editions undoubtedly surpass previous editions for classroom use. They make it practical, perhaps for the first time, to incorporate Chapman into courses on Jacobean poetry, on classical reception and the history of translation, on the materiality of the early modern book.’ — Sarah Van der Laan, Spenser Review 48.2.15, Spring-Summer 2018
  • ‘For the significantly improved access to Chapman’s Homer and for the rich collection of pointers in the footnotes, both of these volumes are worthy additions to the MHRA series. Miola and Kendal also allow their affection for Chapman to energize their editions, which provides the reader with some extra motivation to tackle these challenging texts.’ — Sheldon Brammall, Translation and Literature 27, 2018, 223–31
  • ‘This expertly edited volume, suitable for scholars, students, and general readers alike, significantly expands what we know about the cultural transmission of classical texts in early modern Europe. Presenting new insights regarding the reception and dissemination of Homeric epic in early modern England, it also helpfully illuminates Chapman’s specific contributions as versifier, wordsmith, and critic.’ — Melinda J. Gough, Renaissance and Reformation 42.4, Autumn 2019, 208-10
  • ‘Miola’s edition at last makes available the riches of this enormously influential translation for early modern Britain in a highly accessible and affordable publication. It constitutes an invaluable companion to the earlier publication in the series of Chapman’s Odyssey.’ — Andrew Hiscock, Modern Language Review 115.2, 2020, 445-47 (full text online)