Image of a young man under his lover's window from Dante's La Vita Nuova

An avid interest in Italian language, art and culture led me to embark on this bibliographic project. I took my first trip to Italy when my Italian piano teacher wanted to visit her father. Our travels and their stories of Italian life from seasons past inspired me to register in first-year Italian classes at the University of Tennessee. I continued in my studies until I received an undergraduate degree in Italian language and literature. My love for Italian civilization has grown through the years
encouraged by many friends, travels and studies of the language and culture. This bibliography is a sincere attempt at saying thanks and showing my appreciation for Italian life, customs, history and culture.

Given the great importance of Italian art and culture on Western Civilization, it should come as no surprise that our Special Collections library would house a substantial amount of Italian-related materials. Many of the books within this collection are of bibliographical and typographical interest because of distinguished bindings, printer’s ornaments or engraved illustrations. They are of academic interest due to the subject matter. The library possesses materials of – and about – many influential Italian artists, scholars, and writers with publication dates ranging from 1481 to the contemporary period.

Items of particular interest and to note are the Italiani Classici set which contains 409 volumes of Italian literature spanning from the Middle Ages to the 18th Century. Also the edition of Dante’s Divina commedia with illustrations by Gustave Dorè is quite impressive, if not ominous and brooding. This bibliographic collection also reflects varied materials concerning the artists, architects, writers and poets of the Renaissance and the amount of material Special Collections has on Italian description and travel would prove useful to researchers and historians in many fields of study.

The bibliographic citations are organized by subject matter and then arranged alphabetically by author or when no author is mentioned by title. Information concerning the physical nature of the book is in brackets following the main citation. The call number is listed at the end of each citation. When asking for materials, it is important to include the symbols that precede some call numbers: x = oversize, xx = folio. A “MS” indicates that the material is contained within a manuscript
collection. A guide is available upon request for most manuscript material. A few theses are also included in the bibliography. Thesis material is located in the University Archives and is available upon request at the Special Collections main desk.

These citations were gathered and originally placed using catalog entries created over the years by various catalogers. As it will reflect their accuracies it will also reflect their errors. However, great care was taken to examine each book physically before entering the citations in hopes of correcting any orthographical or typographical errors that might have occurred. Each illustration used in the bibliography has a letter at the bottom of the page that corresponds with the same letter on the “list of illustrations” page.

Every effort was made to create an exhaustive bibliography. However, it is possible that certain items were overlooked. When a sufficient amount of new acquisitions and missed materials are gathered, a revised edition will be made.

Special thanks to Celeste Varagona, Anthony Cervone, Salvatore Di Maria, Flavia Brizio-Skov, Sandra Walker, Nick Wyman, Bill Eigelsbach, and Jamie Sue Linder for their invaluable assistance, instruction and inspiration through the years.