From "Goodly Maker" to Witness Against the Pope: Conscripting Dante in Henrician England

Reception of Dante in England in the early sixteenth century and during the reign of Henry VIII has received relatively little attention so far, although important work has recently been done on the 'cultural revolution' of the time and the ways in which its medieval past was being mapped and read (ROSS 1991; GORDON 1996; SIMPSON 2002; WALKER 2005; MC MULLAN and MATTHEWS 2007). What follows will therefore focus on three main areas of enquiry: the circulation of relevant texts in the period; the perception of Dante's status, especially in relation to England as 'empire'; and his potential for recruitment as a 'proto-Protestant' writer. Within the wider context of early Tudor culture, I shall also be concerned with two of the 'related sets of allegorizing myths' that Trevor Ross has identified in the argument about literary tradition at this time: "myths of empire and myths about the continuity of Protestant thought" (ROSS 1991: 61).