About Me

"What an interesting little book this is. I really enjoyed it. I found the details about Florio’s life, especially his connection to Queen Anna fascinating. I enjoyed the explanation of the differences between English and Italian sonnets and the direct comparison of Florio’s translations – how he added his own flair and knowledge of poetry to the pieces. The cover and the embellishments before each chapter are also really pretty! The author’s huge range of knowledge and respect and admiration for Florio really shines through in her writing. It rubs off on the reader and this book certainly inspired me to pick up more books on Florio and his work."

"The importance of this — excellently well written and thoroughly researched — monograph is that it brings to the fore the poetry of John Florio. Florio has long been the object of much study, much of it by students of Elizabethan theater, including students of Shakespeare. But in all the work on Florio — at least to my knowledge — the spotlight has never focused on Florio as a poet. And that is what makes this little book so original and important. Reading this book makes clear that Florio was a strong poet (in addition to his other literary achievements as a translator and lexicographer). The poems of John Florio, in both Italian and English, can be read in this book. Now, readers can make up their own minds about this — but, to me, it’s clear from them that Florio was both a highly-skilled verse-maker and a poetry artist of imaginative power, masterful linguistic inventiveness, and generous and humane intelligence. So much so (and I was surprised to read this in this book), a most establishment sort of Elizabethan literature scholar — as who might have written it was not known at the time — attributed to Shakespeare(!) a sonnet later shown to have been by Florio."

"As the author demonstrates with passion and learning, John Florio, brilliant linguist and translator, was also a versatile poet. This book is a milestone in a new line of studies aimed at completing the knowledge of the human and literary personality of that genius who was a true monument of the Elizabethan Renaissance."

"I read it in 3 days, it’s a passionate, detailed, careful analysis of some sonnets Master Florio wrote anonymously during his career. The author is able to prove that John/Giovanni Florio was both a poet, (a genius who wrote sonnets in both italian and english with different styles!) and considered a poet among his contemporaries. Truly a new field of investigation that needs to be analysed by other Florio scholars in the future. The book is beautifully adorned with 16th century banners and ornaments. Without any doubt the author wrote this book with passion and dedication. On the back of the cover I’ve read she’s writing another book on Florio, I hope it’ll come out soon."