We would like to express our gratitude to Alison McKay and David Fallis for their inception, in 2004-2005, of the Toronto-wide Arts Festival on the theme of “Metamorphosis" and to all of our contributors, who responded to the original call for papers with enthusiasm, participated in the discussions with gusto and collegiality, and both composed their original papers and revised their chapters for the volume with alacrity and acumen. The conference was made possible with a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada and contributions from the Centre for Comparative Literature; the Departments of Classics, English, Fine Art History, and Spanish and Portuguese; and the Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies. We are grateful to all these institutions for their support. We are particularly grateful to the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria University in the University of Toronto for their generosity in co-sponsoring and co-hosting the original conference and for their continuing commitment to the project. Professors Lawrin Armstrong, Konrad Eisenbichler, David Klausner, Andy Orchard, and Jill Ross offered much needed assistance at crucial junctures and we remain grateful to them for their ongoing help. It is a pleasure to record as well our debts of gratitude to Rosemary Beattie, whose financial acumen facilitated both the conference and the resulting volume, and especially to Sarah Sheehan, who has been of invaluable assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. Last but by no means least, we are very grateful to Konrad Eisenbichler in his capacity as Editor of the CRRS Essays and Studies Series for the generous care and attention he has bestowed on the project as it has come to fruition.