Jacopo Passavanti

“Passavanti’s main target audience was the medieval equivalent of podcast listeners, a population not educated to read Latin, tuning in from time to time to sermons in the public square. This smooth and accurate translation will be a great boon to readers of major Italian authors of the fourteenth century, but also to anyone seeking better to understand the medieval worldview on the human condition, from the value of penitence to the interpretation of dreams.” -- Alison Cornish, Professor of Italian Studies, New York University and President, Dante Society of America
“Michael Sherberg's excellent translation of Jacopo Passavanti's treatise on penitence offers readers important new perspectives on the Italy of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Beginning with a comprehensive introduction to Passavanti's intellectual context at Santa Maria Novella, the volume's fluid translation and valuable notes will stimulate new research questions for scholars of literature, religion, and history.” -- Martin Eisner, Professor of Italian, Duke University
“Michael Sherberg's English translation of Jacopo Passavanti’s Mirror of True Penitence is excellent and finally offers English speakers crucial access to the entire Specchio. It’s a work that deserves a great deal more attention in the areas of gender studies, the history of the interpretation of dreams and their symbols after Macrobius, and the analytical intersections of philosophy and poetry, among others.” -- Sherry Roush, Liberal Arts Professor of Italian, Pennsylvania State University