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This volume presents an interesting case study dealing with the relationship between bilingualism and society in 14th-century Florence. Francesco da Barberino’s Documenta Amoris are a sort of orthodox contrappunto of the Commedia, in which Dante’s linguistic experimentation is substituted by Francesco’s rigid bilingualism. The book provides one of the first interpretations of this fundamental figure of 14th-century Florentine culture.

The contributions gathered in this volume discuss the complex topic of translating in medieval itay from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining the philological approach with a detailed social and cultural analysis. The authors discuss, among other topics, translations of ‘classical’ and particularly so-called ‘modern’ texts, the distribution of knowledge and languages, and the social history of translating.

Notwithstanding an impressive amount of secondary literature, an exhaustive study has been never devoted to the twelve letters written by Dante Alighieri after his banishment from Florence (1302–1315). This book answers to this important need of Dante Studies, offering an important tool for the increasing community of specialists interested in Dante’s works and posterity linked to the seventh centenary of his death (2021). A section is devoted to study in depth the theory and practice of the dictamen of the age in relationship with the concrete style of Dante’s texts. A preliminary overview is provided by Latin Philologists and Paleographers on the subject of the manuscript trasmission envisaging the problems dealing with the critical editions of the texts. Example of political communication realized by a layman, the papers gathered in this volume intend to offer a new reading and interpretation of these important letters, studying them in their socio-cultural context.