From the Middle Ages onwards, writers, artists and composers became self-consciously aware of the vast potential for external references to enrich their works. The essays investigate work by renowned authors, composers and artists, as well as less familiar sources, from France, England and Italy.

From the Middle Ages onward, writers, artists, and composers have evoked canonical works from the distant or more recent past, in some cases in order to demonstrate respect for tradition, in others merely to enrich their own productions. But whatever their reasons, they all, explains "Citation, Intertextuality, and Memory in the Middle Ages and Renaissance," manipulated the memory of their readers. The essays in this multidisciplinary volume offer a wide array of scholarship on the role of memory and citation in the cultural production of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, examining both renowned and less well-known works from France, England, and Italy.