This 1999 volume was the first to explore as part of an unbroken continuum the critical legacy both of the humanist rediscovery of ancient learning and of its neoclassical reformulation. Focused on what is arguably the most complex phase in the transmission of the Western literary-critical heritage, the book encompasses those issues that helped shape the way European writers thought about literature from the late Middle Ages to the late seventeenth century. These issues touched almost every facet of Western intellectual endeavour, as well as the historical, cultural, social, scientific, and technological contexts in which that activity evolved. From the interpretative reassessment of the major ancient poetic texts, this volume addresses the emergence of the literary critic in Europe by exploring poetics, prose fiction, contexts of criticism, neoclassicism, and national developments. Sixty-one chapters by internationally respected scholars are supported by an introduction, detailed bibliographies for further investigation and a full index.

'… its huge and impressive range and scope make its arrival an occasion for great rejoicing … Norton's anthology makes a permanent contribution, not least because it alerts us to how criticism is now, not just to how it was then.'

Valentine Cunningham Source: The Times Higher Education Supplement

'…it will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars of the early modern period, and will doubtless become a standard work of reference.'

Scott Nixon Source: Review of English Studies