In writing this book the author has endeavored to give a connected story of the development of Italian literature from its origin down to the present. In so doing, however, he has laid chief stress on those writers whose fame is world-wide, and thus, owing to lack of space, has been obliged to treat in the briefest manner those writers who, although famous in Italy itself, are not generally known to the world at large. It is hoped that the reader may be led to study more in detail this literature, which although ranking with the greatest of the world-literatures, has been to a large degree neglected in England and America. The translations from Dante*s New Life and of the story from Boccaccio have been made by the author, inasmuch as during the writing of this book he could not obtain access to the standard translations.