CUNY Academic Commons

Throughout this semester, we have learned and read the works of several Italian writers and poets, including Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Niccolò Machiavelli. While one topic […]

Portrait of St. Angela Da Foligno

While reading Angela Da Foligno’s Memorial, it was easy to feel and vividly experience the devotion that she felt towards God. Particularly in Step Six, she uses terms such as […]

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, specifically in Chapter 16, begins by examining generosity in a ruler. While Machiavelli believes that a prince’s reputation for generosity i […]

Illustration from the Decameron, Day 2 (Sicurano pleading to the Sultan)Miniature from The Decameron by Master Jean Mansel (1430-1450) and copyist Guillebert de Mets, Parigi, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, […]

Philippe Jacques van Bree: Laura and Petrarch at the Fountain of Vaucluse

Similar to the rest of the poems in Il Canzoniere, the general theme in poem 132 is love. However, in this poem, Petrarca seems to […]

The Divine Comedy, written by Dante Alighieri, is a three-part Italian narrative poem published in 1472. In this poem, Dante takes the reader through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso […]