Chaucer's Italy

Chaucer enjoyed numerous international sojourns over the course of his eventful life, but there was one part of Europe that influenced his work like no other: Italy. Tracing Chaucer's journeys and his links to destinations such as Florence, Certaldo, Arqua, Pavia, and Milan, Richard Owen introduces us to the princes, knights, and authors with whom Chaucer mixed. Richard Owen's illuminating new account leaves no doubt that, without the influence of Italian luminaries such as Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio, the English canon ' fathered' by Chaucer would never have existed as we know it.