Janet Levarie Smarr

One of the most acclaimed French poets from the turn of the eighteenth century and one of the rare women of the time to achieve recognition at court, Louise-Geneviève Gillot de Sainctonge was France’s first female librettist. The current volume provides not only the most in-depth biography of her ever published, but also the first appearance of any of her work in English. It features her two tragic opera libretti, both of which were set to music and staged at the Opéra, a spoken play that constitutes an important precursor of tearful comedy, and a small sampling of her poetry. The three dramatic works give thoughtful portrayals of women of high rank who exemplify traits such as fidelity, integrity and forthrightness, only to find themselves powerless in a misogynist society, where the male heroes turn out to be inglorious.—Perry GethnerNorris Professor of French, Oklahoma State University

Avoiding the male-authored model of competing orations, French and Italian women of the Renaissance framed their dialogues as informal conversations, as letters with friends that in turn became epistles to a wider audience, and even sometimes as dramas. No other study to date has provided thorough, comparative view of these works across French, Italian, and Latin. Smarr's comprehensive treatment relates these writings to classical, medieval, and Renaissance forms of dialogue, and to other genres including drama, lyric exchange, and humanist invective -- as well as to the real conversations in women's lives -- in order to show how women adapted existing models to their own needs and purposes. Janet Levarie Smarr is Professor of Theatre and Italian Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

The "Novellino" is an anonymous collection of 100 short stories and anecdotes in Italian written sometime before 1300 A.D. It is a vast and true panorama of the Middle Ages. The "Novellino" describes every level of Italian life, from the common peasant to the emperor Frederick II, emphasizing the importance of wit, intelligence and quick thinking. It contains tales of the entire world as medieval Italy knew it, ranging from Saladin to English kings, who demonstrate the importance of true nobility.