Excerpt from Italian Social Customs of the Sixteenth Century, and Their Influence on the Literatures of EuropeThe labor involved in this book was considerable, and I was occupied with it from 1903 until its publication by Ginn and Co. of Boston in 1907. Meanwhile my Italian work made little progress, and when I retired from active service in 1909 it still lacked the thirteenth and last chapter on the influence of Italy on Spanish society in the seventeenth century. From time to time, however, as new books appeared or as I happened to discover older materials which had escaped my notice, I revised my work and made extensive additions to my notes.In 1912 I was recalled for a year to active service, and at the same time had the irreparable misfortune to lose the companionship and sympathy of my wife after forty years of happy married life. It was not until 1915 that I was able to resume methodical literary work, and it was not until 1917 that I completed the thirteenth and last chapter of my book. For this I could fortunately use the Ticknor Collection at Boston and the Library of the Hispanic Society at New York.However, in spite of many deficiencies, the book as it now stands is tolerably complete, and, I venture to think, will be useful to scholars as the first general view of a curious and extensive field of study. When it was undertaken some twenty-five years ago, there was no general article or book on the subject, and I was obliged to collect my materials and explore the extensive field without a guide. A glance at the notes will show how much has been done in this field within the last eighteen years, after my book was substantially completed. The only portion newly written within.that period is the thirteenth and last chapter, on the influence of Italy on Spain. I have endeavored to incorporate into my work all the important materials produced in the last eighteen years. At least all will be found mentioned in the notes. None of this new material served as a guide, for I had previously explored the whole field myself. Such illuminating articles as P. Rajna's "L'Episodio delle questioni d'amore nel Filocolo, " in Romania, Vol. XXXI (1902), and G. Zonta's "Rileggendo Andrea Cappellano, " and "Arbitral reali o questioni giocose?" in Studi medievali, 1908 and 1911, have afforded me additional references but have not obliged me to change conclusions which I had reached independently.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.