Innovation in the Italian Counter-Reformation

The enduring black legend of the Italian Counter-Reformation which has held sway in both scholarly and popular culture maintains that the Council of Trent ushered in a cultural dark age in Italy snuffing out the spectacular creative production of the Renaissance. As a result the decades following Trent have been mostly overlooked in Italian literary studies in particular. The thirteen essays of <i>Innovation in the Italian Counter-Reformation</i> present a radical reconsideration of literary production in post-Tridentine Italy. With particular attention to the much-maligned tradition of spiritual literature the volume's contributors weave literary analysis together with religion theater art music science and gender to demonstrate that the literature of this period not only merits study but is positively innovative. Contributors include such renowned critics as Virginia Cox and Amedeo Quondam two of the leading scholars on the Italian Counter-Reformation.<br> <br> Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.<br>