Routledge Writing Southern Italy Before the Renaissance: Trecento Historians of the Mezzogiorno (Routledge Studies in Renaissance and Early Modern Worlds of Knowledge)

This volume traces the work of trecento historians of the Mezzogiorno, analyzing it through current methodological and theoretical frameworks. Questioning the current consensus, the book examines how the South as a cultural "other" began evolving over the fourteenth century, and reconsiders the nineteenth-century "Southern Question" concerning the Mezzogiorno’s history, culture and people and its lingering negative image in Europe and America. It also focuses on specific histories, authors and historiographical issues, and reviews how new understandings of the Mediterranean have begun to alter our perceptions of the South in a new global context and as the basis for new historical research. Review ‘This book ... is informed, full of new insights, and brings together a body of knowledge about some less familiar but superb texts in a new way. The integration of the South of Italy, particularly Naples, with the center/North is very welcome. Overall, Musto makes the case that history is literature and indeed, that historians do well to take account of the approaches of literary scholars’ - Speculum 95/4 (October 2020) About the Author Ronald G. Musto is co-publisher of Italica Press, former co-director of ACLS Humanities E-Book, former Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America, and editor of Speculum. He has recently been appointed Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Bristol, UK.