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acknowledgments I have incurred great debts of gratitude in the years of work on this book. I would like to thank, first and foremost, Albert Russell Ascoli and Cesare Segre, who have guided me on different but intertwining paths of research and intellectual rigor. Dennis Looney, Ronald Martinez, and Kasey Evans gave fundamental suggestions to improve the manuscript and saved me from many errors; those that remain are, of course, my own. Helen Tartar and Tom Lay have been impeccable editors, and it has been a pleasure to work with them, as well as with Tim Roberts, my managing editor. I would also like to thank Candace Hyatt. Many colleagues and friends read and commented on parts of the manuscript at various stages, and I thank them all: Steven Botterill, David Hult, Sergio Zatti, Monika Otter, Stefano Jossa, Rebecca Manley, Andrew Jainchill, Armando Petrucci, Manuel Rota, Marco Ruffini, Andrea Canova, Veronika Fuechtner, Colleen Boggs, Michael Cole, Ippolita di Majo, Wendy Heller, Monique O’Connell, Daniel Javitch, Estelle Lingo, Maude Vanhaelen, Morten Hansen, Lilya Kaganovsky, Rob Rushing, Renée Trilling, Marcus Keller, and Areli Marina. This work would not have been possible without the generosity of Anna Montanari, whom I thank deeply. I would also like to acknowledge the support and friendship of many others who have accompanied my life and my work during these years: Regina Psaki, Maria Luisa Meneghetti, the late Ruggero Stefanini, Franca Nardelli, Domietta Torlasco, Peggy McCracken, Sharon Kinoshita, Elissa Weaver, Deanna Shemek, Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti , Cristina Montagnani, Françoise and Joe Connors, Michael Rocke, Madeleine Viljoen, Annalisa Izzo, Susan Gaylard, Angela Capodivacca, Silvia Valisa, Barbara Spackman, Graziella Parati, Keala Jewell, Nikhil Rao, Miguel Valladares and Paula Sprague, Acknowledgments xii Ora Gelley, Nancy Canepa, Beppe Cavatorta, Anna Minardi, Nancy Castro and Gillen Wood, Ericka Beckman and Marcelo Bucheli, Michael Rothberg and Yasemin Yildiz, Dara Goldman, Bob LaFrance, Heather and Vernon Minor, Harry Liebersohn and Dorothee Schneider, Jim Hansen, Paula Mae Carns, Javier Irigoyen García, Luisa Elena Delgado, Mariselle Meléndez, Silvina Montrul , Diane and Antonino Musumeci, and Giuseppe Sangirardi. A number of institutions provided support for the conception, research, and production of this study: the University of California at Berkeley, Dartmouth College, the University of Illinois, the Research Board at the University of Illinois, the Hewlett International Travel Fund, Villa i Tatti (the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies), the American Council of Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation, and the Centro Studi Rinascimentali of Ferrara. I am grateful for the opportunity to work at a number of libraries , whose staff made it possible for me to gather the documents necessary for the completion of this book: my own home library at the University of Illinois, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the staff of the Interlibrary Loan Office in particular; the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Milan; Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence; Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana of Florence; Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence; Berenson Library at Villa I Tatti, Florence; Biblioteca della Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Fondo Ridolfi, Florence; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome; Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome; Biblioteca Corsiniana, Rome; Biblioteca Universitaria, Pavia; Biblioteca Estense, Modena; Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, Ferrara; Biblioteca Palatina, Parma; Biblioteca Statale, Cremona; the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Wellesley College Library, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and the Rare Book and Manuscript Collection of the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania. Finally, my deep thanks to my family: to my father, Mario Stoppino , who loved Ariosto and would have been happy to see this book; my mother and sister, Rachele Corsico and Lidia Stoppino; all the friends and family in Italy, from Bergamo to Pavia to Pieve Albignola . And, of course, Leo. This book is for Manuel Rota. ...

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