The Complete Poems of Michelangelo: Joseph Tusiani's Classic Translation

by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Gianluca Rizzo (Editor), Joseph Tusiani (Translator)

Overview

Though known primarily as a sculptor and painter, Michelangelo was also a poet. In his lifetime, Michelangelo wrote over 300 poems, many of which were works of devotion and love poems of a spiritual and mystical nature.

In 1961, Joseph Tusiani offered the first English translations of the complete corpus of Michelangelo’s poems. These translations illuminated the subtleties of both the source and target language, giving Michelangelo’s verse a freshness, a depth, and an inventiveness that time has not been able to obscure.

The Complete Poems of Michelangelo reproduces Tusiani’s masterful translation. In addition to Tusiani’s introduction and translations, this new edition contains Michelangelo’s original Italian poetry, a chronology of his life and works, a biographical profile of Tusiani, and an interview with Tusiani exploring his musings on classic literature and the subtle art of translation. The Complete Poems of Michelangelo sheds light on Tusiani’s many exceptional accomplishments during his long and prolific life as a scholar, poet, translator, and artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487543617
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	03/02/2023
Series:	Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.95(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michelangelo Buonarroti was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance.
Gianluca Rizzo is the Paul D. and Marilyn Paganucci Associate Professor of Italian Language and Literature at Colby College.
Joseph Tusiani was a professor emeritus at the Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Justified Envy: An Editor’s Note
Gianluca Rizzo

Part I

Introduction to The Complete Poems of Michelangelo Buonarroti
Joseph Tusiani

Rime
Joseph Tusiani’s Classic Translation with Facing Italian

A Chronology of Michelangelo’s Life

A General Bibliography on Michelangelo’s Literary Output

Part II

Joseph Tusiani: A Biographical Profile
Anthony J. Tamburri

The "Michelangelo Man": An Interview with Joseph Tusiani

What People are Saying About This

Philip Balma

"Tusiani's masterful, invaluable translations of the complete poems of Michelangelo, which have finally been updated and reprinted in this prestigious new edition, constitute the most compelling Anglophone version of these important compositions to date."

Marjorie Perloff

“What a wonderful service Gianluca Rizzo has rendered by re-issuing Joseph Tusiani's classic translations! Michelangelo's brilliant sonnets, odes, and madrigals are now available to a much wider readership. It is a joy to read and reread the remarkable literary oeuvre of the sculptor of David and the painter of the Sistine Chapel!”

Igor Candido

"The Complete Poems of Michelangelo takes the reader on a unique journey to the tormented soul of 'the greatest poet of the Cinquecento.' In this elegant new edition, Joseph Tusiani's classic version lines up in the great tradition of Wordsworth, Emerson, Longfellow, Symonds, Santayana, and Newell, against which the translator claims his special right to give Michelangelo an authentic English voice."

Editorial Reviews

" The Complete Poems of Michelangelo takes the reader on a unique journey to the tormented soul of ‘the greatest poet of the Cinquecento.’ In this elegant new edition, Joseph Tusiani’s classic version lines up in the great tradition of Wordsworth, Emerson, Longfellow, Symonds, Santayana, and Newell, against which the translator claims his special right to give Michelangelo an authentic English voice."

—Igor Candido, Head of Italian, Trinity College Dublin
"What a wonderful service Gianluca Rizzo has rendered by re-issuing Joseph Tusiani’s classic translations! Michelangelo’s brilliant sonnets, odes, and madrigals are now available to a much wider readership. It is a joy to read and reread the remarkable literary oeuvre of the sculptor of David and the painter of the Sistine Chapel!"—Marjorie Perloff, Author of Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetic

"Tusiani’s masterful, invaluable translations of the complete poems of Michelangelo, which have finally been updated and reprinted in this prestigious new edition, constitute the most compelling Anglophone version of these important compositions to date."

—Philip Balma, Associate Professor of Italian Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Connecticut

From the Publisher