The book is devoted to the literature of Italy from the XII to XX centuries. The main attention is paid to the literature of the Renaissance. A separate section includes articles about the largest Russian Italians - A.N. Veselovsky and L.K. Dzhivelegov. The focus is on the historical poetics of innovative and dramatic genres (heroic poem, chivalric novel, short story, tragedy and comedy), the evolution of styles (mannerism, baroque, classicism), typology of folk laughter culture.