Michael Papio
Professor of Italian Studies, Italian Graduate Program Director, and Director of UMass Medieval Studies
Location
306 Herter Hall
Office Hours, Spring, 2024:
Meetings by appointment and Zoom.
Just zip me an email.
Office Hours, Spring, 2024:
Meetings by appointment and Zoom.
Just zip me an email.
Education
- BA, Italian and Spanish, Florida State University
- MA, Italian Studies, University of Virginia
- PhD, Italian Studies, Brown University
Work in Progress
- A Critical Edition and Translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis seu paludibus et de nominibus maris (On Mountains, Woods, Springs, Lakes, Rivers, Swamps or Marshes, and on the Names of the Sea). Principally funded by an NEH Scholarly Translations grant.
- Editor of: Tibor Wlassics. Dante’s Inferno: An English Terza Rima Translation for the Close Reader. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
- Editor of: The Decameron. Tenth Day in Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Giovanni Boccaccio and the Philosophers. A book-length study of Boccaccio’s understanding and use of philosophy in his contributions to the development of the theories and practice of literary interpretation in late-medieval and Early-Renaissance Italy.
- Founding member of the Giovanni Boccaccio Paleopathology Program, based at the FAPAB Research Center in Avola, Italy.
Selected Digital Humanities Projects
- Dante’s Florence (La Firenze di Dante), with G. Spani. A bilingual, hypermedia app for mobile devices available from Google Play and the App Store.
- The Decameron Web, with M. Riva.
Research Areas
- Boccaccio; Dante; Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy; interdependence of literature, philosophy and theology; geocriticism; digital humanities; philology, commentary and translation; literary paleopathology
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal
- Editor-in-Chief of Heliotropia, a Forum for Boccaccio Research and Interpretation (and official publication of the American Boccaccio Association). ISSN: 1542-3352. Established in 2003 and affiliated with the ABA in 2007, the journal has been classified as a periodical of "fascia A" in Area 10 by Italy's Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca (ANVUR) since 2016.
Books, translations and edited volumes
- The Decameron: A Critical Lexicon. (English translation of Lessico critico decameroniano. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1995.) R. Bragantini, P. M. Forni and C. Kleinhenz, eds. M. Papio, trans. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2019. [link]
- Heliotropia 700/10. A Boccaccio Anniversary Volume. Edited volume. Milano: LED, 2013. [link]
- Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man. A New Translation and Commentary. Co-authors F. Borghesi and M. Riva. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2012. Paperback 2016. [link]
- Boccaccio in America. Proceedings of the 2010 International Boccaccio Conference at The University of Massachusetts Amherst. Edited volume, with E. Filosa. Ravenna: Longo, 2012. [link]
- Boccaccio's Expositions on Dante's Comedy. Toronto: U. of Toronto Press, 2009. [link]
- Concordance to the Decameron (2001).
- Keen and Violent Remedies: Social Satire and the Grotesque in Masuccio Salernitano's Novellino. New York: Peter Lang, 2000.
Articles and book chapters
- "Dyspepsia in the Middle Ages: a Reference in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (14th century AD)?" Co-authors: F. M. Galassi, G. Spani, F. Toscano, M. Artico and E. Varotto. Acta Biomedica 94.6 (2023): e2023237. [link]
- "Boccaccio antropólogo de la Antigüedad." In Pervivencia y Literatura: documentos periféricos al texto literario. C. Blanco Valdés and E. Borsari, eds. San Millán de la Cogolla: Cilengua, 2023, pp. 93-119.
- "A Couple of Cantos from Tibor Wlassics' Inferno: An English Terza Rima Translation for the Close Reader." Tre corone 10 (2023): 111-33.
- "Boccaccio as Philosophical Anthropologist." Rivista di letteratura tardogotica e quattrocentesca 4 (2022): 85-102.
- Introduction to Masuccio Salernitano, The Novellino, C. Stace, tr. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022, pp. xiii-xxix.
- "Inferno 10: Heretics in Fiery Tombs." In Reading Dante with Images. A Visual Lectura Dantis. M. Collins, ed. London-Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2022, pp. 79-115. [link]
- "Il «Decameron Web», vent'anni dopo: bilanci e prospettive." Co-author: M. Riva. Griselda Online 20.2 (2021): 157-66. [link]
- "Was Pronapides an Orphic?" In Interpretation and Visual Poetics in Medieval and Early Modern Texts. Essays on in Honor of H. Wayne Storey. B. Arduini, I. Magni and J. Todorović, eds. Leiden: Brill, 2021, pp. 288-303. [link]
- "What Does the Humanities Scholar Want? And When Is a Pound of Flesh Just Too Much?" Preprint April 2021. [link]
- "The Tale of the Three Ill-Starred Sisters (IV.3)." In The Decameron. Fourth Day in Perspective. M. Sherberg, ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020, pp. 59-72. [link]
- "Who Wrote «Rupibus ex dextris?» Stylometric Experiments Between Petrarca and Boccaccio." Medioevo letterario d'Italia 16 (2019): 113-30. [link]
- "On Boccaccio's Debt to Stoicism." MLN 134 sup (2019): 152-66. [link]
- "Boccaccio e la paleopatologia." Co-authors: F. M. Galassi, G. Spani, E. Varotto, F. Toscano and E. Armocida. Heliotropia 15 (2018): 267-80. [link]
- "Notes for a Critical Edition of the De montibus and a Few Observations on «Rupibus ex dextris»." Co-author: A. Lloret. Studi sul Boccaccio 46 (2018): 13-50.
- "Geospatial Visualizations for the Study of Boccaccio." Humanist Studies & the Digital Age 5.1 (2017): 24-45. [link]
- "Giovanni Boccaccio's (1313-1375) Disease and Demise: The Final Untold Tale of Liver and Heart Failure." Co-authors: F. M. Galassi, F. Toscano, E. Armocida, G. Spani and F. J. Rühli. Homo. Journal of Comparative Human Biology 68.4 (2017): 289-97. [link]
- "Sulla povertà politica e filosofica del Boccaccio." Heliotropia 12-13 (2015-16): 213-32. [link]
- "A Case of Sudden Death in Decameron IV.6: Aortic Dissection or Atrial Myxoma?" Co-authors: F. Toscano, G. Spani, F. J. Rühli and F. M. Galassi. Circulation Research, Journal of the American Heart Association 119 (2016): 187-89. [link]
- "'Merus phylosophie succus': Neoplatonic Influences on Boccaccio's Hermeneutics." Medioevo letterario d'Italia 12 (2015): 97-127. [link]
- "Boccaccio between Mussato and the Neoplatonists." In Boccaccio 1313-2013. Proceedings of the Second Triennial American Boccaccio Association Conference. F. Ciabattoni, E. Filosa and K. Olson, eds. Ravenna: Longo, 2015, pp. 275-86.
- "Un richiamo boeziano nelle opere del Boccaccio." Heliotropia 11 (2014): 65-77. [link]
- "An Intimate Self-Portrait (Testamentum)." In Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works. V. Kirkham, M. Sherberg and J. Smarr, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013, pp. 341-51.
- "On Seneca, Mussato, Trevet and the Boethian 'Tragedies' of the De casibus." Heliotropia 10.1-2 (2013): 47-63. [link]
- "Boccaccio: Mythographer, Philosopher, Theologian." In Boccaccio in America: Proceedings of the 2010 International Boccaccio Conference. E. Filosa and M. Papio, eds. Ravenna: Longo, 2012, pp. 123-42. [link]
- "The Decameron Web, a Dozen Years Later." Co-author: M. Riva. In Teaching Literature and Language Online. I. Lancashire, ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009, pp. 343-57.
- "¿Cuál será el futuro de la publicación de revistas electrónicas en las humanidades?" La corónica 37.1 (2008): 365-86. [link]
- "Reflections on Heliotropia and the Future of E-journal Publishing in the Humanities.” Storicamente 4 (2008). [link]
- "Il pericolo che viene dal mare: il Novellino di Masuccio Salernitano tra xenofobia e misoginia." In Mediterranoesis. R. Morosini and C. Perissinotto, eds. Roma: Salerno, 2007, pp. 235-52.
- "Masuccio Salernitano’s Gusto dell'orrido." In The Italian Novella. G. Allaire, ed. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 119-136. [link]
- "Adaptation and Alienation in the Tavianis' Male di luna." Dialoghi 4.1-2 (2000): 119-27. [link]
- "Patterns of Meaning in the Decameron." In Approaches to Teaching Boccaccio’s Decameron. J. McGregor, ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2000, pp. 51-62. [link]
- "'Non meno di compassion piena che dilettevole': Notes on Compassion in Boccaccio." Italian Quarterly 143-46 (2000): 107-25. [link]
- "The «Corpse on a Horse» from a Fabliau to the Nineteenth Century." La questione romantica 7-8 (1999): 111-25. [link]
- "La novella tra Testo e Ipertesto: il Decameron come modello." Co-author: M. Riva. In La narrativa italiana dal primato allo scacco. Roma: Carocci, 1998, pp. 65-85.
- "Derailment of Closure: The Father-Son Enigma in Fellini." Italica 74.3 (1997): 392-407. [link]
- "Dante's Re-education of Conscience (Paradiso XVII)." Lectura Dantis 18-19 (1996): 91-110. [link]