THE ARABIC ROLE IN MEDIEVAL LITERARY HISTORY

Menocal reviews the Arabic cultural presence in a variety of key settings, including the courts of William of Aquitaine and Frederic k II, the universities in London, Paris, and Bologna, and Cluny under Peter the Venerable, and she examines how our perception of sp ecific texts including the courtly love lyric and the works of Dante and Boccaccio would be altered by an acknowledgment of the Arab ic cultural component.