Italy First published posthumously in 1560 Tullia d’Aragona, Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino Tullia d’Aragona (ca. 1501- 1556) was a celebrated Italian courtesan, prolific author, and philosopher. She composed and experimented with the structure of...
Portugal First published: 1572 Luis Vaz de Camões, The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas) Camões’ Os Lusíadas is not technically a New World epic, as it is sometimes called, since most of its action takes place in Africa and India. Yet it clearly exemplifies a...
Italy Completed in 1575, first published in 1581. Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata Tasso’s heroic poem in twenty ottava rima cantos fictionalizes the vicissitudes of several leading historical figures from the First Crusade as it...
Spain 1569, 1578, and 1589 (first complete edition) Alonso de Ercilla La Araucana Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana (published in Spain in three parts, 1569, 1578, and 1589, the latter gathering all three parts) is probably the best known epic poem of...
England Published: 1590; 1596 Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene Spenser’s The Faerie Queene can be studied, in its local Elizabethan context, as an exemplar of Philip Sidney’s claim that the purpose of poesy is to “teach and delight” and, in its more global...
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