Martin Eisner is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina.

'Eisner's book is a welcome addition to studies on the self‐authorizing project of the Italian poets at a key moment in the rise of European vernaculars. It is also a particularly fine specimen of the 'material' turn in medieval literary studies. A reliable guide to this intricate web of interconnectedness, Eisner shows how productive the combination of philology and interpretation can be, tracing convincingly the impact of paleographical features on reception, the significance of making a book, the significance of page layout, of juxtaposition, of inclusion and exclusion, of editorial choices, of contamination in transcription - and Boccaccio's unique role in all of this.' Alison Cornish, Modern Philology

• Introduction: Boccaccio between Dante and Petrarch: cultivating vernacular literary community in the Chigi codex; 1. Dante's dirty feet and the limping republic: Boccaccio's defense of literature in the Vita di Dante; 2. Dante's shame and Boccaccio's paratextual praise: editing the Vita nuova, Commedia, and canzoni distese; 3. The making of Petrarch's vernacular Book of Fragments (Fragmentorum liber); 4. The inventive scribe: glossing Cavalcanti in the Chigi and Decameron 6.9; Epilogue: the allegory of the vernacular: Boccaccio's Esposizioni and Petrarch's Griselda.

Martin Eisner is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina.

'Eisner's book is a welcome addition to studies on the self‐authorizing project of the Italian poets at a key moment in the rise of European vernaculars. It is also a particularly fine specimen of the 'material' turn in medieval literary studies. A reliable guide to this intricate web of interconnectedness, Eisner shows how productive the combination of philology and interpretation can be, tracing convincingly the impact of paleographical features on reception, the significance of making a book, the significance of page layout, of juxtaposition, of inclusion and exclusion, of editorial choices, of contamination in transcription - and Boccaccio's unique role in all of this.' Alison Cornish, Modern Philology

• Introduction: Boccaccio between Dante and Petrarch: cultivating vernacular literary community in the Chigi codex; 1. Dante's dirty feet and the limping republic: Boccaccio's defense of literature in the Vita di Dante; 2. Dante's shame and Boccaccio's paratextual praise: editing the Vita nuova, Commedia, and canzoni distese; 3. The making of Petrarch's vernacular Book of Fragments (Fragmentorum liber); 4. The inventive scribe: glossing Cavalcanti in the Chigi and Decameron 6.9; Epilogue: the allegory of the vernacular: Boccaccio's Esposizioni and Petrarch's Griselda.

Martin Eisner is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina.

'Eisner's book is a welcome addition to studies on the self‐authorizing project of the Italian poets at a key moment in the rise of European vernaculars. It is also a particularly fine specimen of the 'material' turn in medieval literary studies. A reliable guide to this intricate web of interconnectedness, Eisner shows how productive the combination of philology and interpretation can be, tracing convincingly the impact of paleographical features on reception, the significance of making a book, the significance of page layout, of juxtaposition, of inclusion and exclusion, of editorial choices, of contamination in transcription - and Boccaccio's unique role in all of this.' Alison Cornish, Modern Philology

• Introduction: Boccaccio between Dante and Petrarch: cultivating vernacular literary community in the Chigi codex; 1. Dante's dirty feet and the limping republic: Boccaccio's defense of literature in the Vita di Dante; 2. Dante's shame and Boccaccio's paratextual praise: editing the Vita nuova, Commedia, and canzoni distese; 3. The making of Petrarch's vernacular Book of Fragments (Fragmentorum liber); 4. The inventive scribe: glossing Cavalcanti in the Chigi and Decameron 6.9; Epilogue: the allegory of the vernacular: Boccaccio's Esposizioni and Petrarch's Griselda.