"Early Modern Bromance is a truly groundbreaking book of exceptional interest and potentially long-lasting importance for cultural studies on both sides of the Atlantic. With bold originality as well as scholarly acumen, Aria Dal Molin focuses on the activities of prominent Italian male academies, especially in Cinquecento Siena, and compares their unconventional, sexually daring scripted comedies to 'bromantic' American films and television series of the 1980s–2010s. Providing new insights into revealing parallels and differences between performance contexts across two continents and five centuries, this interdisciplinary and highly readable study is a most welcome one." —Eric Nicholson, Faculty Member, New York University Florence
"This well-organized study is an innovative work that will find some very interested readers. The arguments throughout the whole book are very good. In particular, the discussion of the Sacrificio is very persuasive and includes excellent observations on its reworkings of Petrarch." —Janet Smarr, Professor of Theater, Department of Italian Studies, University of California San Diego
"Early Modern Bromance is a compelling scholarly work, examining Gli Ingannati from multiple angles and providing a refreshing, instructive explication of contemporary bromance. The book opens with a thorough critical survey of ideas of friendship that covers the three periods in European cultural history most pertinent to its central subject: classical, medieval, and early modern. The study’s most outstanding accomplishment is its reconsideration of Gli Ingannati by the Accademia degli Intronati di Siena in the light of its relevant paratexts, the Comedia del Sacrificio degli Intronati di Siena and the Prologue to the Ingannati comedy. The thorough commentary on these last two texts gives this study special traction as historical scholarship. Early Modern Bromance returns this play to the cultural moment of its creation as a dramatic work via essential texts that have long been overlooked and gives us further understanding of this play in its historical context by acknowledging the effects of the Sack of Rome in 1527 and subsequent Italian Wars as predicates of the Academic movement’s increasing appeal in general, as well as the founding of a particular academy in a specific place, the Accademia degli Intronati di Siena. Detailed research into the Accademia’s charter, its membership, its emblem, and the architecture of its theater all give this work exceptional scholarly authority. Moreover, the way that film studies and other disciplines inform and enhance this scholarly work compounds its significance and adds to its relevance to classroom teaching and contemporary debates over marriage and relations between the sexes." —Lawrence Rhu, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, English Language and Literature, University of South Carolina
