This work examines the ways in which the culture and society of the Middle Ages impacted on the works of the Sienese poet, Cecco Angiolieri (c

Introduction The Trouble with Cecco: The 'State of the Question' and Difficulties Inherent in a Study of Angiolieri; I: Comedy and Culture: Cecco Angiolieri and the Comic Traditions; II: Love and Literature: Cecco Angiolieri's Relationship with the Amorous Lyric Traditions; III: Poverty and Poetry: Cecco Angiolieri's Position in the Evolution of a Vernacular Trope; IV: Insult and Injury: Vituperium in the Poetry of Cecco Angiolieri; V: Cecco, Simone Dante and Guelfo: Correspondence among Angiolieri's Poetry; VI: Fact or Fiction: Cecco Angiolieri's Poetic Self-Presentation