Abstract
Early in the sixteenth century, Italy came to represent the cultural vanguard in Europe both in terms of new ideas and in offering a literary model of the vernacular. English visitors to Italy such as William Thomas and William Barker saw this in action at the Accademia Fiorentina where Giovanni Gelli lectured on Dante. The academy itself is a model for the principle of ‘vulgarization’ set out in the preface to Hoby's Courtier. This is put into practice in the first short-story collection in English, William Painter's Palace of Pleasure, which takes Boccaccio as its stylistic authority and in its tales of transgression acts as a primer of social possibility for English readers. These translations from Italian would themselves be translated for the stage, and two of the many spin-offs from Painter, by George Whetstone and George Pettie, point in the direction of the public and private theatres respectively.
Published Version
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