“Somebodies and Nobodies: Andrea Alciati and Gianfrancesco Pico on Reality and Imagination, 1517-1523”
Walter Stephens, Charles S. Singleton Professor of Italian Studies, has published widely on the intersections of Renaissance Italian and French Literature with theology, anthropology, demonology, literary forgery, and the history of writing. His books are Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism (1989; 2006) and Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief (2002). Edited volumes include The Body in Early Modern Italy (2010) and Literary Forgery and Patriotic Mythology in Europe, 1450-1800 (forthcoming). He is completing work on Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Strix and De imaginatione (edition and translation) and It Is Written: The Emotional History of Writing, from Babylon to Silicon Valley.