An Italian scholar determines whether the allusions to Italian language, geography and history are accurate or imagined in 10 Shakespeare plays and 2 narrative poems. Illustrated, with extensive notes and bibliography.
"Noemi Magri's combination of a detailed first-hand knowledge of Italian geography, architecture, art, and history with a cool-headed, rigorous approach to scholarship results in the kind of dazzling criticism that is rare in Shakespeare studies. She is unlike those traditional Shakespeare scholars who, as she says, "rejoice" in finding factual errors in Shakespeare. Instead, she rejoices in finding the reality that is behind Shakespeare's work. Her identification of the actual paintings described in the "Induction" to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is a tour de force, but her whole book crackles with the passion of discovery. It is not to be missed." - Warren Hope, Professor of English, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
"Not only does Noemi Magri assure us that "Nothing in Shakespeare is meaningless," she shows this to be the case with numerous overlooked or misinterpreted details regarding Shakespeare's intimate knowledge of Italy: its art, geography, politics, law, etymologies, and more. Collecting Magri's work into one volume here, Such Fruits Out of Italy is a treasury of Shakespearean discoveries, and a triumph of scholarship." - Michael Delahoyde, Clinical Professor of English, Washington State University