2023 SIHS Article Prize Honorable Mention for Medieval and Early Modern Italian History: Melissa Vise

Melissa Vise,Compositio: Horizons of Truth in the Decameron, the Notarial Register, and Civic Peace Pacts,” Viator, December 16, 2022.

The Society for Italian Historical Studies also gives an honorable mention of Melissa Vise, “Compositio:  Horizons of Truth in the Decameron, the Notarial Register, and Civic Peace Pacts,” Viator 52.2 (2021): 227-259.  In this article, Vise brings together the divergent worlds of literary and legal scholarship as she explores how seemingly disparate texts – the stories gathered in Boccaccio’s tale collection and the peace pacts registered by notaries – construct the pursuit of truth.  In so doing, she helps us to understand not only the Decameron but also the work of notaries in late medieval Florence.