Acknowledgements
This volume had its origins in a conference with the same title held at Durham University in February 2016, under the aegis of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. I would like to thank Carlo Caruso, my postdoctoral mentor at Durham, for his guidance and encouragement. I am also grateful to a number of colleagues in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and the Department of English Studies for their valuable help and insights, in particular Kathryn Banks, Laura Campbell, Annalisa Cipollone, Jan Clarke, Daniel Derrin, Patrick Gray, Richard Maber, John OâBrien, Marc Schachter, Kimberley Skelton, Luke Sunderland, Dario Tessicini, and Thomas Wynn. Thoughtful comments were also provided by Mishtooni Bose, Gabriele Bucchi, Tom Deneire, Gloria Hernández, Michael Hetherington, Jane Newman, David Oxlade, Paul Smith, and Michael Wyatt. Special thanks should be extended to the anonymous readers for their accurate feedback, and to Stuart Oglethorpe for his careful reading. Over the last year I have greatly benefitted from conversations with Guyda Armstrong, Giacomo Comiati, Simon Gilson, and Federica Pich. The concluding stages of the editing process received the support of the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages at the University of Oslo.