Fabian R Alfie

Interests

Teaching

All aspects of Italian language, literature, and culture, and including Italian folklore. I have taught extensively on medieval Italian literature, including courses on Dante's "Divine Comedy." This interest has led me to promote Dante in the community, including working with St. Philips in the Hills Episcopal Church with their annual All-Night Reading of Dante's "Inferno" as part of their Maundy Thursday observance. I've also given several interviews on Dante in the local media.

Research

Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly the comic / satiric literature of the period; authors include Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, as well as lesser-known poets such as Rustico Filippi, Cecco Angiolieri, Folgore da San Gimignano, and Burchiello.

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Alfie, F. R. (2021). La Cazzaria, Manuscript K: A Nineteenth-Century Copy of the Lost Naples Edition.. Florence (Italy): Franco Cesati Editore.
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  Critical edition
• Alfie, F. R., & Appauso, N. (2019). Dante Satiro: Satire in Dante Alighieri's "Comedy" and Other Works. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.
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  A volume of essays from various scholars dealing with the topic of satire in Dante Alighieri's literary production
• Alfie, F. R. (2018). Folgore da San Gimignano and His Followers: The Complete Works. Tempe: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
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  Peer-reviewed translation of the complete works, and introduction
• Feng, A. A., & Alfie, F. R. (2017). The Poetry of Burchiello (ca. 1404-1449): Deep-fried Nouns, Hunchbacked Pumpkins, and Other Nonsense. Introduction, Notes, and Translation by Fabian Alfie and Aileen A. Feng.. Tempe, AZ: ACMRS Press.
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  First English translation and edition of Burchiello's poetry.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014). Rustico Filippi: The Art of Insult. Cambridge UK: Modern Humanities Research Association.
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  Peer-reviewed translation of complete works, and introduction.
• Alfie, F. R. (2011). Dante's tenzone with Forese Donati: The Reprehension of Vice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Alfie, F. R., & Dini, A. (2011). "Accessus ad Auctores": Studies in Honor of Christopher Kleinhenz. Tempe: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
• Alfie, F. R. (2002). Comedy and Culture: Cecco Angiolieri's Poetry and Late Medieval Society. Leeds UK: Northern Universities Press.

Chapters

• Alfie, F. R. (2024). "A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens": The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333. In Nature in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times(pp 253-299). Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Alfie, F. R. (2022). Paying the Prostitute: Filth, Folly, and Sexuality in Niccolo Machiavelli's Letter to Luigi Guicciardini (8 December 1509). In Nudity and Folly in Italian Literature from Dante to Leopardi(pp 115-131). Franco Cesati: Rome.
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  Edited by Simon Gilson and Ambra Moroncini
• Alfie, F. R. (2021). Comic Culture. In The Oxford Handbook on Dante(pp 173-187).
• Alfie, F. R. (2020). Happy Endings: IV. 10. In The Decameron: Fourth Day in Perspective(pp 181-196). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Alfie, F. R. (2020). The Conundrum of Genre: Dante's "Doglia Mi Reca". In Dante Satiro: Satire in Dante’s Comedy and Other Works(pp 133-145). Lanham MD: Lexington Books.
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  This is a chapter in a collection for which I am the co-editor with Nicolino Applauso
• Alfie, F. R. (2019). Consider this Tomb: An Unedited Sonnet about Death and Final Judgment. In Catastrophes and the Apocalyptic in the Middle Ages and Renaissance(pp 81-96). Turnhout: Brepols.
• Alfie, F. R. (2015). The Sonnet about Women who Marry in Old Age: Filth, Misogyny, and Depravity. In Hygiene, Medicine, and Well-Being.
• Alfie, F. R. (2017). La "Donna Taverna": La ballata delle due comari ubriache. In La poesia in Italia prima di Dante: Atti del Colloquio Internazionale di Italianistica, Universita' degli Studi Roma Tre 10-12 giugno 2015(pp 41-48). Ravenna: Longo Editore.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014). Love and Misogamy in Petrarch's Age. In Approaches to Teaching Petrarch's Canzoniere and Petrarchism(pp 79-84). New York: MLA Publications.
• Alfie, F. R. (2013). Of Incontinence and Incontinentia: Women's Flatulence in Rustico Filippi. In The Book of Nature and Humanity in Medieval and Early Modern Europe(pp 71-84). Turnhout: Brepols Press.
• Alfie, F. R. (2011). Sixteenth-Century Criticism of Dante's Tenzone with Forese Donati: Vincenzio Borghini's 'De' poeti antichi toscani'. In "Accessus ad Auctores": Studies in Honor of Christopher Kleinhenz(pp 131-151). Tempe: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.
• Alfie, F. R. (2010). Yes... but was it Funny? Cecco Angiolieri, Rustico Filippi, and Giovanni Boccaccio. In Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Epistemology of a Fundamental Human Behavior, Its Meaning, and Consequences(pp 265-282). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.
• Alfie, F. R. (2009). "The Merchants of My Florence": A Socio-Political Complaint from 1457. In Urban Spaces in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age(pp 463-480). Berlin, New York: De Gruyter.
• Alfie, F. R. (2004). The Violent Poetics of Inversion, or The Inversion of Violent Poetics: Meo dei Tolomei, His Mother, and the Italian tradition of Comic Poetry. In Violence in Medieval Courtly Literature: A Casebook(pp 207-223). New York and London: Routledge.

Journals/Publications

• Alfie, F. R. (2022). A War of Words among Women: An Anonymous Bolognese Poem from 1282. Mediaevistik, 34, 129-141.
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  Forthcoming
• Alfie, F. R. (2022). Hoofing It on Dry Ground: Sex, Sexuality and Gender in 'Decameron' 5.10. Letteratura Tardogotica, 4, 123-138.
• Alfie, F. R. (2021). Danger and the Disguised Crow: Culture and Gender in "Quando 'l consiglio degli ucce' si tenne". Rivista internazionale di ricerche dantesche, 2, 113-128.
• Alfie, F. R. (2019). La Compiuta Donzella of Florence (ca. 1260): The Complete Poetry. Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Seuxality, Subsidia Series, 10, 3-42.
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  A complete translation of the works by La Compiuta Donzella, including those works written to, or about, her.UPDATE: This was selected to be the "translation of the month" for November 2021 for the website "Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index"
• Alfie, F. R. (2016). Forty Years of Drunkenness: A Note about Cecco Angiolieri's Sonnet about Wine. Scaffale Aperto: Rivista di Italianistica, 7, 109-115.
• Alfie, F. R. (2017). "Quel Folletto": Notes on a Hapax. Dante Notes.
• Alfie, F. R. (2017). Adriano de' Rossi: Poesie / Poems.. Mosaici: Learned Online Journal of Italian Poetry (section: Poetry in Translation, 2017).
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  A complete translation of the sonnets by Adriano de' RossiNOTE: It appears that Mosaici has been closed and the website is now unavailable. I've prepared a PDF of the translation and attached it here. (3/3/2020)
• Alfie, F. R. (2016). Nonsense and Noise: The Audial Poetics of Immanuel Romano's 'Bisbidis'. International Studies in Humour, 5(1), 127-139.
• Alfie, F. R. (2016). Politics, and Not Poetics: A Reading of Guido Cavalcanti's Sonnet 'Una figura della Donna Mia.". Italica, 93(2), 209-224.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014). Parable or Threat? Decameron I.7 and Hugh Primas' Reputation. Heliotropia: A Forum for Boccaccio Research and Interpretation, 11(1-2), 39-53.
• Alfie, F. R. (2015). Giovanni Sercambi: Story 31. TSQ: Transgender Quarterly, 2(3), 532-538.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014). Cecco vs. Cecco: A Newly Identified Source for Angiolieri's Adversary, Fortarrigo. Medium Aevum, 83(1), 121-130.
• Alfie, F. R. (2013). Immanuel Ben-Solomon of Rome, Nicknamed Manoello the Jew (ca. 1265-ca. 1331). Journal of Italian Translation, 65-69.
• Alfie, F. R. (2013). Like She-Cats in January: An Anonymous Fifteenth-Century Misogyistic Sonnet. Medieaevistik, 26, 207-215.
• Alfie, F. R. (2012). Old Lady Avignon: Petrarch's Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta 136 and the Topos of Vituperium in Vetulam. Italian Culture, 30(2), 100-109.
• Alfie, F. R. (2012). S'e' non ti cagia la tua santalena: Guido Cavalcanti and the Thirteenth-Century Reprehension of Rusticitas. Italica, 89(3), 309-321.
• Alfie, F. R. (2011). Diabolic Flatulence: A Note on Inferno 29: 139. Forum Italicum, 45(2), 417-427.
• Alfie, F. R. (2007). Black Comedy: The Poetry of Niccola Muscia. Romance Philology, 61, 193-211.
• Alfie, F. R. (2007). Il duro camo: Poetics and Politics in Purgatorio 14. Dante Studies, 125, 5-35.
• Alfie, F. R. (2007). Lapo Gianni's Improperium: Intertextualities with Dante's De vulgari eloquentia. Rivista di studi testuali, 8-9, 7-29.
• Alfie, F. R. (2007). Noterella sulle rime di Pietro de' Faitinelli: Il Magliabechiano VII 1034. Letteratura Italiana Antica, 8, 137-140.
• Alfie, F. R. (2004). 'O cinquecento, e cinque, e diece guarda': A Riddle Poem and Dantesque Mosaic. Italica, 81(1), 1-15.
• Alfie, F. R. (2004). The Morality of Misogyny: The Case of Rustico Filippi, Vituperator of Women. Quidditas, 25, 43-70.
• Alfie, F. R. (2003). Giovanni Pellegrino and Salamone: A Fifteenth-Century Tenzone Between a Christian Writer and a Jewish Poet. Prooftexts, 23(1), 94-109.
• Alfie, F. R. (2003). Punishing God: Politically Motivated Blasphemy in the Italian Comic Poetry of the Fourteenth Century. Medievalia et Humanistica, 30, 33-54.
• Alfie, F. R. (2003). Re-Reading the 'Phoenix': An Interpretation of Cino da Pistoia's 'Infra gli altri diffetti del libello'. Italian Culture, 21, 1-18.
• Alfie, F. R. (2003). Traditional, Comic Sonnets in the Magliabechiano VII 1034 Manuscript. Rivista di Studi Italiani, 21(1), 15-37.
• Alfie, F. R. (2002). A Sonnet Ascribed to Saint Catherine of Siena: Attribution and Intertextualities. Italian Quarterly, 39(153-154), 113-124.
• Alfie, F. R. (2002). Cast Out: The Topos of Exile in Cecco Angiolieri, Pietro de' Faitinelli, and Pieraccio Tedaldi. Annali d'Italianistica, 20, 113-124.
• Alfie, F. R. (2002). Durante's Ars Amandi: A Structural Reading of the Fiore. Forum Italicum, 1, 36.
• Alfie, F. R. (2002). Rustico's Reputation: Ramifications for Dante's Tenzone with Forese Donati. Electronic Bulletin of the Dante Society of America.
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  Linked under "Minor Works"
• Alfie, F. R. (2001). Men on Bottom: Homoeroticism in Cecco Angiolieri's Poetry. Medievalia et Humanistica, 28, 25-44.
• Alfie, F. R. (2001). One Year--Or Two Decades--of Drunkenness: Cecco Angiolieri and the Udine 10 Codex. Italica, 78(1), 18-35.
• Alfie, F. R. (2000). Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Jean de Meun, Durante, and Bindo Bonichi. Rivista di studi italiani, 18(1), 34-59.
• Alfie, F. R. (1998). "I' son si' magro che quasi traluco": Inspiration and Indebtedness among Cecco Angiolieri, Meo dei Tolomei, and il Burchiello. Italian Quarterly, 35(135-136), 5-28.
• Alfie, F. R. (1998). For Want of a Nail: The Guerri-Lanza-Cursietti Argument Regarding the Tenzone. Dante Studies, 116, 141-159.
• Alfie, F. R. (1998). Immanuel of Rome, alias Manoello Giudeo: The Poetics of Jewish Identity in Fourteenth-Century Italy. Italica, 75(3), 307-329.
• Alfie, F. R. (1998). Love and Poetry: Reading Boccaccio's Filostrato as a Medieval Parody. Forum italicum, 32(2), 347-374.
• Alfie, F. R. (1995). Poetics Enacted: A Comparison of the Novellas of Guido Cavalcanti and Cecco Angiulieri in Boccaccio's 'Decameron'. Studi sul Boccaccio, 23, 171-196.
• Alfie, F. R. (1995). Self-Reflexive Moments in Cecco Angiolieri. Italian Culture, 13, 27-38.

Presentations

• Alfie, F. R. (2024, March). "Si' che 'l Giudeo di voi tra voi non rida!": Jews as Aliens (Mostly!) in Paradiso 5. The 70th Annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America. Chicago: Renaissance Society of America.
• Alfie, F. R. (2023, April). "'A New Flood Was Released from the Heavens': The Literary Responses to the Disaster of 1333."  . The 21st International Symposium: Human and Natural Worlds in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time: From Eco-Criticism to Pre-Modern Anthropology. University of Arizona, Tucson.
• Alfie, F. R. (2023, April). Participant.  "Teaching with Primary Sources Symposium."  Roundtable sponsored by the University of Arizona Libraries.. Teaching With Primary Sources Symposium. Zoom: University of Arizona Libraries.
• Alfie, F. R. (2023, April). Participant: "Con Ingegno e Con Arte": A Roundtable on Methodologies and Approaches to Teaching Dante."  Sponsored by the Graduate Student Group of the Dante Society of America.  Tuesday 4 April 2023 (by Zoom).. "Con Ingegno e Con Arte": A Roundtable on Methodologies and Approaches to Teaching Dante." Sponsored by the Graduate Student Group of the Dante Society of America..
• Alfie, F. R. (2022, June). In Terra di Menzogna: Boccaccio's Impact on Burchiello (1404-1449). The Fifth Triennial Conference of the American Boccaccio Association. Padua Italy: American Boccaccio Association.
• Alfie, F. R. (2021, April). In Sheep's Clothing: A False Attribution and the Reception of Dante in the Late Trecento. 67th Annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America.
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  Presentation at the 67th Annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America. Wednesday 14 April 2021.
• Alfie, F. R. (2019, April 5). "Danger and the Disguised Crow: Culture and Gender in 'Quando 'l consiglio degli ucce' si tenne'". Rime: Dante's Workshop of the Heart: An International Symposium. New York City: The Global Dante Project of New York, New York University, and Columbia University.
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  A One-Day Conference on Dante's Lyric Poetry
• Alfie, F. R. (2019, October). "Hoofing It On Dry Ground: Sex, Sexuality, and Gender in 'Decameron' 5.10". The American Boccaccio Association Fourth Triennial Conference. University of Wisconsin-Madison: American Boccaccio Association.
• Alfie, F. R. (2017, April). Blaming the Wife: Medieval Notions of Sodomy in Dante's "Inferno". Queer Language(s) Across Borders. University of Arizona Campus: Department of French and Italia.
• Alfie, F. R. (2015, June). La Donna Taverna: La ballata delle due cognate ubriache. La poesia in Italia prima di Dante. Rome, Italy: Università degli Studi Roma Tre.
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  The conference took place between 10-12 June 2015. All talks were by invitation.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014, April). Respondent to session, "Natures of Emotion". The 40th annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium. Sewanee TN.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014, February). “Consider this Tomb: An Unedited Italian Sonnet about Death and Final Judgment.”. The 20th annual Interdisciplinary ACMRS Conference. Tempe: ACMRS.
• Alfie, F. R. (2014, February). “Poetry Argues with the Razor: Burchiello, the Poet-Barber.”. The Humanities, Medicine and Wellness Conference. Tucson.
• Alfie, F. R. (2013, February). “Like a Cat in January: A Fifteenth-Century Misogynous Poem.”. 19th Interdisciplinary ACMRS Conference. Tempe: ACMRS.
• Alfie, F. R. (2011, April). "Happy Endings: 'Decameron' IV, 10". American Association of Italian Studies Conference. Pittsburgh: American Boccaccio Association.
• Alfie, F. R. (2010, May). “Petrarch’s Lady Avignon: Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta 136 and the Topos of Vituperium in Vetulam.”. The 45th International Conference on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo: University of Western Michigan.

Reviews

• Alfie, F. R. (2016. Maria Luisa Ardizzone. "Reading as the Angels Read: Speculation and Politics in Dante's Banquet"(pp 480-482). Mediaevistik 29.

Others

• Alfie, F. R. (2022, October). La Compiuta Donzella. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writings in the Global Middle Ages. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-76219-3_28-1
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  In: Sauer, M.M., Watt, D., McAvoy, L.H. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Medieval Women's Writing in the Global Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 
• Alfie, F. R. (2018, August). Domenico di Giovanni. The Literary Encyclopedia.
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  Ed., Jo Ann Cavallo
• Alfie, F. R., Feng, A. A., & Christiana, D. R. (2015, November). A Poetry of Art: Burchiello Redressed.
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  A limited-edition box set of etchings illustrating the poetry of Burchiello. Print run of 25 funded by a grant from the UA Confluencenter. Etchings by Prof. David Christiana (College of Fine Arts); translations of Burchiello by Fabian Alfie and Aileen Feng.
• Alfie, F. R. (2011, October). Cecco Angiolieri. The Literary Encyclopedia.