Exploring Sixteenth-Century Italy Through the Poems of Giulio Cesare Croce

This volume translates the poems of Giulio Cesare Croce: a sixteenth-century street poet and singer who plied his trade on the bustling streets of Bologna. Though widely popular in his time, Croce’s work has been largely neglected by modern scholarship, and his poems remain largely untranslated into English—despite their frequent reference by Italian academics who recognize their value as vivid windows into Early Modern life.

This collection remedies this absence by providing the first English translation for many of Croce’s poems, bringing out (rather than obscuring) their uncouth and bawdy nature. It argues for the use of Croce’s poems within historical inquiry, demonstrating their unique contribution to our understanding of Early Modern Italy. His poems illuminate a genre often forgotten due to its oral and ephemeral nature and reveal the lived experiences of the pre-modern non-elite, displaying the flavor and character of their daily lives.

Organized into four thematic chapters, the translated poems are accompanied by contextual introductions that explore various dimensions of pre-modern life. Explanatory footnotes further situate Croce’s works within their literary and historical context, making the collection accessible to scholars, students, and general readers interested in Early Modern Italian history and popular literature.