The controversy generated in Italy by the writings of Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso during the sixteenth century was the first historically important debate on what constitutes modern literature. Applying current critical theories and tools, the essays in "Renaissance Transactions" re-examine these two provocative poet-thinkers, the debate they inspired, and the reasons why that debate remains relevant today.Re situating these writers' work in the context of the Renaissance while also offering appraisals of their uncanny 'post modernity', the contributors to this volume focus primarily on Ariosto's Orlando furioso and Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata. Arguing that Ariosto and Tasso are still central to the debate on what constitutes modern narrative, this collection will be invaluable to scholars of Italian literature, literary history, critical theory, and the Renaissance. The contributors are: Jo Ann Cavallo, Valeria Finucci, Katherine Hoffman, Daniel Javitch, Constance Jordan, Ronald L. Martinez, Eric Nicholson, Walter Stephens, Naomi Yavneh, and Sergio Zatti.