Overview

On Amist comprehensively examines the value of friendship in late medieval Italy. Although we often think of friendship today as an indisputable value of human social life, for thinkers and writers across late medieval Christian society friendship raised a number of social and ethical dilemmas that needed to be carefully negotiated. On Amista analyses these dilemmas and looks at how Dante's strategic articulations of friendship evolved across the phases of his literary career as he maneuvered between different social groups and settings. Elizabeth Coggeshall reveals that friendship was not an unequivocal moral good for the writers of late medieval Italy. Instead, it was an ambiguous term to be deployed strategically, describing a wide range of social relationships such as allies, collaborators, servants, patrons, rivals, and enemies. Drawing on the use of the language of friendship in the letters, correspondence poems, dedications, narratives, and treatises composed by Dante and his interlocutors, Coggeshall examines the way they skillfully negotiated around the dilemmas that friendship raised in the spheres of medieval Italian literary society. The book addresses instances of inclusivity and exclusivity, collaboration and self-interest, hierarchy and equality, and alterity and identity. Employing literary, historical, and sociological analysis, On Amist presents a genealogy for the innovative and tactical use of the terms of friendship among the works of late medieval Italian authors.

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9781487548179

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Reviews

"""In this thoughtful account of what friendship does in Dante's text and in Dante's time, Elizabeth Coggeshall offers a nuanced, contextualized picture of friendship as constituting a range of fraught relationships, foregrounding the sociopolitical and literary tensions of Trecento Italy. A timely and immensely valuable contribution to our understanding of Dante and his social networks."" --Heather Webb, Professor of Medieval Italian Literature and Culture, University of Cambridge ""Whereas previous studies of friendship in Dante's oeuvre rely almost exclusively on literary analysis filtered through a theological lens, Coggeshall breaks new ground by looking at friendship in its many guises from a sociological angle. This major contribution to the flourishing field of Dante studies will also be of significant interest to scholars, teachers, and students in medieval and early modern studies."" --Guy P. Raffa, Professor Emeritus of Italian Studies, University of Texas at Austin ""In these days, when friendship is increasingly navigated in virtual settings and intertwined with social media, Coggeshall's fascinating study of the role and value of friendship in the Middle Ages is extraordinarily timely. As she explores 'friendly' competition between poets, for example, Coggeshall invites the reader to consider not only what medieval intellectuals meant by 'being a friend' but also how their understanding of friendship continues to resonate in the modern era."" --Mary A. Watt, Professor of Italian Studies, University of Florida ""Departing from well-known philosophical, scriptural, and theological contexts, On Amist� refreshingly analyses how Dante molded the lexicon of friendship into the language of survival and self-promotion in his lyric poetry and Latin works, and the consequences for this new vision of friendship in the Commedia's imagined bonds of attachment. I highly recommend this book for readers of Dante and those interested in the continuities and ruptures between the medieval and early modern periods."" --Kristina M. Olson, Associate Professor of Italian, George Mason University"

Departing from well-known philosophical, scriptural, and theological contexts, On Amista refreshingly analyses how Dante molded the lexicon of friendship into the language of survival and self-promotion in his lyric poetry and Latin works, and the consequences for this new vision of friendship in the Commedia's imagined bonds of attachment. I highly recommend this book for readers of Dante and those interested in the continuities and ruptures between the medieval and early modern periods. - Kristina M. Olson, Associate Professor of Italian, George Mason University In these days, when friendship is increasingly navigated in virtual settings and intertwined with social media, Coggeshall's fascinating study of the role and value of friendship in the Middle Ages is extraordinarily timely. As she explores 'friendly' competition between poets, for example, Coggeshall invites the reader to consider not only what medieval intellectuals meant by 'being a friend' but also how their understanding of friendship continues to resonate in the modern era. - Mary A. Watt, Professor of Italian Studies, University of Florida In this thoughtful account of what friendship does in Dante's text and in Dante's time, Elizabeth Coggeshall offers a nuanced, contextualized picture of friendship as constituting a range of fraught relationships, foregrounding the sociopolitical and literary tensions of Trecento Italy. A timely and immensely valuable contribution to our understanding of Dante and his social networks. - Heather Webb, Professor of Medieval Italian Literature and Culture, University of Cambridge Whereas previous studies of friendship in Dante's oeuvre rely almost exclusively on literary analysis filtered through a theological lens, Coggeshall breaks new ground by looking at friendship in its many guises from a sociological angle. This major contribution to the flourishing field of Dante studies will also be of significant interest to scholars, teachers, and students in medieval and early modern studies. - Guy P. Raffa, Professor Emeritus of Italian Studies, University of Texas at Austin

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Elizabeth Coggeshall is an assistant professor of Italian at Florida State University.

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