Martin Eisner, Professor of Romance Studies

Please note: Martin has left the "Medieval & Renaissance Studies" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Martin Eisner is Chair of Romance Studies and Professor of Italian at Duke University. He is the author of  Dante's New Life of the Book: A Philology of World Literature (Oxford UP, 2021), which won the Howard R. Marraro Prize from the Modern Language Association. His first book Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature: Dante, Petrarch, Cavalcanti, and the Authority of the Vernacular (Cambridge UP, 2013) has recently been published in Italian as Boccaccio e l'invenzione della letteratura italiana (Salerno, 2022). He is currently working on a biography of Boccaccio for Reaktion Books's Renaissance Lives series. He continues to develop the online research project Dante’s Library. His articles on Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Machiavelli have appeared in PMLA, Renaissance Quarterly, Dante Studies, Mediaevalia, California Italian Studies, Quaderni d’Italianistica, Annali d’Italianistica and Le Tre Corone. His research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the American Academy in Rome, the American Philosophical Association, and the Fulbright Foundation.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	205 Language Center, Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 660-3129
Email Address:
Web Page:	https://duke.academia.edu/MartinEisner

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• ITALIAN 281.01, DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY Synopsis

  Old Chem 116, TuTh 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as HISTORY 253.01, LIT 245.01, MEDREN 341.01, RELIGION 262.01)

• ITALIAN 582.01, DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY Synopsis

  Old Chem 116, TuTh 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as LIT 582.01, MEDREN 603.01)

• ITALIAN 190FS.01, FOCUS TOPICS: ITAL LIT & CULT Synopsis

  Languages 305, TuTh 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

  (also cross-listed as MEDREN 190FS.01)

Office Hours:

To make an appointment, please contact the Assistant to the Chair, Hannah Blake-Harris at catherine.blakeharris@duke.edu

Education:

Ph.D.	Columbia University	2005
M.Phil.	Columbia University	2002
B.A.	Columbia University	1999

Specialties:

Italian Studies
Early Modern

Research Interests: Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, medieval lyric poety, the European novella tradition, and material philology/textual theory

Martin Eisner (Ph.D., Columbia University, 2005) is Associate Professor of Italian Studies and Director of Graduate Studies for the Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. His research explores medieval Italian literature, particularly the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, as well as the history of the book and media. His first book, Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature: Dante, Petrarch, Cavalcanti, and the Authority of the Vernacular (Cambridge University Press, 2013), joins material philology to intellectual history in its exploration of Boccaccio’s transcriptions of Dante, Petrarch, and Cavalcanti in Chigi L V 176. It argues that Boccaccio plays a key role in the creation of the Italian literary tradition not only as author but also as scholar and scribe. His new book project, Dante and the Afterlife of the Book: Rematerializing Literary History, continues to integrate philological materials into literary criticism, but takes a diachronic rather than synchronic approach in its analysis of the material tradition of Dante's first book, the Vita nuova, from its earliest manuscripts to the most recent editions and adaptations. His research has also been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, the American Philosophical Association, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the American Academy in Rome. He has also published articles in PMLA, Renaissance Quarterly, Dante Studies, and California Italian Studies. He regularly teaches courses on Dante and Boccaccio that are taught in English with discussion sections for students who can read the text in Italian as well. Recent graduate courses include “Boccaccio’s Decameron and the Future of Literary Criticism," “Dante's Books,” and "Boccaccio's Women."

Keywords:

Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. Divine comedy

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students  

• Laura Banella  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Eisner, M, In the labyrinth of the library: Petrarch's Cicero, Dante's Virgil, and the historiography of the Renaissance, Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 67 no. 3 (September, 2014), pp. 755-790, Cambridge University Press (CUP), ISSN 0034-4338 [repository], [doi]  [abs]
2. Eisner, MG, The Word Made Flesh in Inferno 5: Francesca Reading and the Figure of the Annunciation in Dante’s Commedia (2013) [repository]
3. Eisner, MG, Boccaccio e l’invenzione della letteratura italiana, vol. 1 (2014), pp. 11-26 [repository]
4. Eisner, M, The Tale of Ferondo’s Purgatory (III.8), in The Decameron: Third Day, edited by Forni, PM; Ciabattoni, F (2014), pp. 153-173, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 9781442616448
5. Eisner, MG, Eroticizing Theology in Day Three and the Poetics of the Decameron, vol. 31 (2013), pp. 207-224 [repository]  [abs]
6. Eisner, MG, The Return to Philology and the Future of Literary Criticism: Reading the Temporality of Literature in Auerbach, Benjamin, and Dante (December, 2011) [4gq644zp]
7. Eisner, M; Schachter, M, Libido Sciendi: Apuleius, Boccaccio and the History of Sexuality, PMLA, vol. 124 no. 3 (May, 2009), pp. 817-837, Modern Language Association (MLA) [doi]  [abs]

Selected Invited Talks

1. “Con le Muse in Parnaso: Boccaccio’s Ideas of Cultural Renaissance between Dante and Petrarch.”, October, 2013, A Boccaccian Renaissance. University of California, Berkeley/Stanford Conference    
2. "The Invention of Italian Literature: Dante, Petrarch, and Cavalcanti in Boccaccio’s Hand.”, September, 2013, NYU in Florence, La Pietra    
3. “Boccaccio in Venice: The 1363 Mission to Petrarch.” Boccaccio Veneto: Cultural crossing in the Medieval Mediterranean.", June, 2013, Casa Artom, Wake Forest University, Venice    
4. “Boccaccio’s Open Book: Chigi L V 176 and the Invention of Italian Literature.”, June, 2013, Boccaccio and Chaucer Conference. Università di Roma, La Sapienza    
5. "Mediating Dante: Boccaccio and the Transformation of a Modern Author.", May, 2013, Dante Society of America, Annual Meeting, Cambridge, MA.    

Selected Grant Support

• Lily Auchincloss Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome (Medieval Competition) 2013-14.      
• Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome (Renaissance Competition).      
• Faculty Book Workshop, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.      
• Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Institute for Advanced Studies.      
• Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society.      
• Fulbright Fellow.      

Professor Eisner has a B.A. in Italian (1999) and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (2005) from Columbia University. His research and teaching focus on medieval Italian literature, particularly the works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. He is in the process of completing his first book, tentatively entitled “The Poetics of Mediation: Boccaccio and the Cultivation of Italian Literature in the Age of Manual Reproduction,” which analyzes Boccaccio’s transcriptions of the vernacular works of Dante, Petrarch, and Cavalcanti in what is now the Vatican's Chigi L V 176. His next book project, "Rematerializing Literary History: The Afterlives of Dante’s ‘Vita Nuova’" continues to integrate philological materials into literary criticism, but takes a diachronic rather than synchronic approach in its analysis of the material tradition of Dante's first book, from its earliest manuscripts to the most recent editions and adaptations. He is also the author of published and forthcoming articles on Petrarch and Boccaccio. His other research interests include medieval lyric poetry, the European novella tradition, and material philology/textual theory/book history. For more bibliographic details, see his publications and honors. His courses on Dante and Boccaccio are both taught in English, but there will be discussion sections for students who can read the text in Italian as well. In the Spring 2010, he will teach a seminar for undergraduates and graduate students on The Materiality of Literature (RS150S/200S).