Amazon.com description: Product Description: This collection of original essays by leading specialists from Britain, North America and Italy explores the relationship between literature and science in Italian culture. Encompassing a variety of authors and topics across four broad periods - medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment to Positivism, and Twentieth Century - the volume presents previously unexplored connections between the discourses of literature and science, and offers a variety of new critical readings. Topics considered include the nature, scope and significance of science in the literary output of major figures; the relationship between specific genres and scientific and philosophical contexts; and the reception and transmission of science in literary texts and of literature in scientific works. (Legenda 2003)