This dissertation is a literary-historical study of Edmund Spenser’s under-rated sonnet sequence, Amoretti (1595), focusing on the poet’s playful manipulation of conventional imagery (largely Petrarchan) to reflect the progression of the poet/lover’s relationship with his beloved from the solipsistic to the interpersonal: that is, a relationship represented by variations on fixed erotic configurations to fluid, interactive conversations involving attitudes, understanding and emotion. Without denying the ultimately serious purpose of the sonnets, the study concentrates on the light-heartedness of the presentation, advertised as a “sporting” interlude in the midst of the composition of Spenser’s major work, The Faerie Queene. Not primarily ideological in focus, but rather of a critical evaluative kind, the work entails a systematic and comprehensive analysis of imagery concerning weaving, captivity and eyes within the Amoretti in three contexts: the genre of the Elizabethan sonnet sequence, Spenser’s other works and the Renaissance propensity for experiment or play of mind.

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This thesis is concerned with one key aspect of the reception of the vernacular poetry of Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), namely translations and imitations of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Rvf) and Triumphi in English. It aims to provide a more comprehensive survey of the vernacular Petrarch’s legacy to English literature than is currently available, with a particular focus on some hitherto critically neglected texts and authors. It also seeks to ascertain to what degree the socio-historical phenomena of religion, politics, and culture have influenced the translations and imitations in question. The approach has been both chronological and comparative. This strategy will demonstrate with greater clarity the monumental effect of the Elizabethan Reformation on the English reception of Petrarch. It proposes a solution to the problem of the long gap between Geoffrey Chaucer’s re-writing of Rvf 132 and the imitations of Wyatt and Surrey framed in the context of Chaucer’s sophisticated imitative strategy (Chapter I). A fresh reading of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella is offered which highlights the author’s misgivings about the dangers of textual misinterpretation, a concern he shared with Petrarch (Chapter II). The analysis of Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion in the same chapter reveals a hitherto undetected Ovidian subtext to Petrarch’s Rvf 190. Chapter III deals with two English versions of the Triumphi: I propose a date for Lord Morley’s translation which suggests it may be the first post- Chaucerian English engagement with Petrarch; new evidence is brought to light which identifies the edition of Petrarch used by William Fowler as the source text for his Triumphs of Petrarcke. The fourth chapter constitutes the most extensive investigation to date of J. M. Synge’s engagement with the Rvf, and deals with the question of translation as subversion. On the theoretical front, it demonstrates how Synge’s use of “folk-speech” challenges Venuti’s binary foreignising/domesticating system of translation categorisation.

This thesis explores the reception of Johann Joachim Winckelmann in Italian art scholarship, 1755-1834. Winckelmann posed a problem: he was a presence in Italy that could not be ignored, yet the views he expounded were Italophobic and contentious to an Italian readership. In light of this dilemma, the research question asked is how did Italian art scholarship respond to Winckelmann in this period and why did it respond in that way. The core argument advanced is that there were two opposing reactions to Winckelmann, both of which were motivated by nationalism. On the one hand, Italian art scholars presented Winckelmann, his works, and his views as less attractive to an Italian readership than they would otherwise have appeared and, on the other hand, they presented him as more attractive. Through these reactions – termed foreignization and domestication respectively – art scholarship either defended against and ostracized Winckelmann or, when presented as less offensive, welcomed and embraced him amongst Italians. Thus this thesis argues that both reactions demonstrate a nationalistic attempt to portray Winckelmann in the manner most auspicious to the yet-to-be-united peninsula. In order to explore this response to the German scholar, the thesis centres on three media: translations, art literature, and artistic journalism. Both foreignization and domestication are evident throughout the sources analysed, yet there is a predominance of domestication, achieved through a variety of methods. This investigation adds to existing literature by examining the previously overlooked dilemma that Winckelmann posed. Moreover, employing the original conceptual framework of foreignization and domestication allows for a re-evaluation of how the art scholarship of the period engaged with the German scholar. Finally, demonstrating the infiltration of nationalistic sentiment in this period, even extending to Italian art scholarship, this thesis is the first to posit that nationalism played a significant role in Winckelmann's critical legacy.