Rizzi's inspiring monograph offers a very timely and much-needed review of the significance of translation in Quattrocento Italy, highlighting, on the one hand, the extent to which the vernacular effectively contributed to the dissemination of the cultural values upheld by the humanist paradigm, while, on the other, challenging views that characterize humanism as linguistically exclusive and culturally insular. The volume's declared and ambitious objective is a “redefinition of the contours of humanism as it is predominantly understood” (33), firmly placing translation, particularly from Latin into the vernacular, at the center of this reassessment, as a fundamental aspect of humanists’ cultural agency.

Focusing on paratextual materials found in manuscripts of translations produced in Italy between 1392 and 1480, in which translators assertively discuss their work, the volume tries to map humanists’ active and consistent engagement with vernacular languages and cultures, proving the dynamism and complementarity of the relationship between Latin and the vernacular in fifteenth-century Italy. On the basis of this evidence, Rizzi convincingly argues for the central function translation performed in directing humanists’ cultural activities and in defining their agency. Challenging established views regarding translation and the status of the vernacular in fifteenth-century Italy, this book leads us toward a more nuanced appreciation not only of the multilingualism of humanist scholarship but, more importantly, of the fluidity of its perceived linguistic and intellectual hierarchies. It “questions any rigid demarcations between Latin-based and vernacular-based cultures in the Quattrocento” (7) and rightly emphasizes the central function of translation in underpinning humanist values as well as shaping Quattrocento literary culture.

The first part of the monograph (chapters 1–3) provides a broad background, “illuminating the sociocultural connections and interactions between translator, dedicatee, and reader” (26). It offers an overview of the principal figures considered in the volume and of their engagement with translation, emphasizing the mutual complementarity and proximity of Latin and vernacular cultures. Considering in more detail the court of Naples, Rizzi highlights translating activities’ social relevance, offering examples of the various forms of capital they could produce, and of the growing awareness of the vernacular's dignity in Quattrocento scribal cultures. Chapters 4–6 focus principally on the four themes the volume considers central in exploring translation's multifaceted function: authority, eloquence, collaboration, and friendship. In particular, chapter 4 explores authority through Bruni's reflection and formulations of the translator's task. The discussion focuses then (in chapter 5) on translators’ concern with the eloquence of their textual products and with preserving the linguistic elegance and intellectual sophistication of the texts they were translating. Exemplifying different approaches to the faithfulness conundrum, the paratextual materials considered point to a shared awareness of the cultural relevance of translation, even when the perceived excellence of source texts remains unattainable. Translations, their production, dedication and exchange, are examined (in chapters 6–7) as social and collaborative enterprises contributing to the creation or consolidation of networks that redistribute cultural capital and other benefits. This produces an interesting reconfiguration of translation as a community-building undertaking based on interrelationships, questioning established notions of patronage as an exclusive and individualized association. This broad structure allows Rizzi to organize the investigation's ample corpus in a distinctive, nonlinear fashion, emphasizing typology and cultural function over more conventional parameters, like time and space.

Overall, the volume offers a convincing and extremely valuable reassessment of vernacular translation as an element of continuity in the transition between the literary culture of the Trecento and the preeminence of the studia humanitatis in the Quattrocento, highlighting a fundamental transformation in the perceived value and status of vernacular translation, which was in fact fostered, rather than impeded, by humanist culture. Rizzi's study also shows that the relationship between Latin and the vernacular in the period considered was active, productive, and creative—not antagonistic, as frequently professed. Meaningfully adding to a growing body of scholarship dedicated to the understanding of early modern translation and its contribution to the intellectual landscape and scribal cultures of the Renaissance, the monograph offers a coherent representation of translators’ effective use of the paratext to assertively self-fashion their work and promote its cultural value. This is an important and significant correction of the view that the vernacular, and translation into it, was culturally marginal in Quattrocento Italy. At the same time, the carefully selected corpus, summarized in a useful appendix, might project a coherence and unity of purpose that was perhaps in reality more variable and fluid. The exclusive focus on the paratext also means that readers will not find a detailed analysis of how paratextual statements are effectively upheld in the translations that form part of the examined corpus. However, Rizzi's reflections on the authority of the translator, on self-fashioning statements about translation practices, and on the function of eloquence in governing approaches to translation fruitfully prepare the ground for further research in this direction.