Armando Maggi – författare

Fairy tales are supposed to be magical, surprising, and exhilarating, an enchanting counterpoint to everyday life that nonetheless helps us understand and deal with the anxieties of that life. Today, however, fairy tales are far from marvelous - in the hands of Hollywood, they have been stripped of their power, offering little but formulaic narratives and tame surprises. If we want to rediscover the power of fairy tales - as Armando Maggi thinks we should - we need to discover a new mythic lens, a new way of approaching and understanding, and thus re-creating, the transformative potential of these stories. In Preserving the Spell, Maggi argues that the first step is to understand the history of the various traditions of oral and written narrative that together created the fairy tales we know today. He begins his exploration with the ur-text of European fairy tales, Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, then traces its path through later Italian, French, English, and German traditions, with particular emphasis on the Grimm Brothers' adaptations of the tales, which are included in the first-ever English translation in an appendix.Carrying his story into the twentieth century, Maggi mounts a powerful argument for freeing fairy tales from their bland contemporary forms, and reinvigorating our belief that we still can find new, powerfully transformative ways of telling these stories.

Although Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) is best known today for his Italian poetry, he was also a philosopher, historian, orator, and one of the foremost classical scholars of his age. "Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works" is the only comprehensive, single-volume source to which anyone - scholar, student, or general reader - can turn for information on each of Petrarch's works, its place in the poet's oeuvre, and a critical exposition of its defining features. A sophisticated but accessible handbook that illuminates Petrarch's love of classical culture, his devout Christianity, his public celebrity, and his struggle for inner peace, this encyclopedic volume covers both Petrarch's Italian and Latin writings and the various genres in which he excelled: poem, tract, dialogue, oration, and letter. A biographical introduction and chronology anchor the book, making Petrarch an invaluable resource for specialists in Italian, comparative literature, history, classics, religious studies, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.

Although Francesco Petrarca (1304-74) is best known today for cementing the sonnet's place in literary history, he was also a philosopher, historian, orator, and one of the foremost classical scholars of his age. "Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works" is the only comprehensive, single-volume source to which anyone - scholar, student, or general reader - can turn for information on each of Petrarch's works, its place in the poet's oeuvre, and a critical exposition of its defining features. A sophisticated but accessible handbook that illuminates Petrarch's love of classical culture, his devout Christianity, his public celebrity, and his struggle for inner peace, this encyclopedic volume covers both Petrarch's Italian and Latin writings and the various genres in which he excelled: poem, tract, dialogue, oration, and letter. A biographical introduction and chronology anchor the book, making Petrarch an invaluable resource for specialists in Italian, comparative literature, history, classics, religious studies, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.

In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, demigods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of the household, the lares and penates. But Armando Maggi, an expert in Renaissance demonology, argues throughout "In the Company of Demons" that the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance had a more nuanced and perhaps less sinister interpretation of these creatures or spiritual bodies.Through close readings of Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Strozzi Cigogna, Pompeo della Barba, Ludovico Sinistrari, and others, Maggi reveals that these demons speak through their sudden and striking appearances - their very bodies seen as metaphors to be interpreted. But the core trait of these spirits is compassion, and sometimes their odd, eerie arrivals are seen as harbingers or warnings to protect us. It comes as no surprise then that when spiritual beings distort the natural world to communicate, it is vital that we begin to listen.

In its interpretation of Latin and Greek culture, Christianity contends that Satan is behind all classical deities, demigods, and spiritual creatures, including the gods of the household, the lares and penates. But Armando Maggi, an expert in Renaissance demonology, argues throughout "In the Company of Demons" that the great thinkers of the Italian Renaissance had a more nuanced and perhaps less sinister interpretation of these creatures or spiritual bodies.Through close readings of Giovan Francesco Pico della Mirandola, Strozzi Cigogna, Pompeo della Barba, Ludovico Sinistrari, and others, Maggi reveals that these demons speak through their sudden and striking appearances - their very bodies seen as metaphors to be interpreted. But the core trait of these spirits is compassion, and sometimes their odd, eerie arrivals are seen as harbingers or warnings to protect us. It comes as no surprise then that when spiritual beings distort the natural world to communicate, it is vital that we begin to listen.

Employing contemporary theoretical perspectives, this book provides the first detailed analysis of the language and thought of Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, an important but neglected Renaissance mystic.Employing contemporary theoretical perspectives, Uttering the Word provides the first detailed analysis of the language and thought of Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi (1566–1607), an important but neglected Renaissance mystic. Borrowing from Lacan, de Certeau, and Deleuze, Maggi analyzes de' Pazzi's unique mystical discourse and studies how the Florentine visionary interprets the relationship between orality and writing, authorship and audience, sexual identity and language.