Abstract

This essay investigates the presence of the Bible in Italian Literature by engaging with critical works recently published. If the Bible – Old and New Testament, Hebrew and Christian traditions – is a ‘complete archetypal structure’ (as Northrop Frye wrote), the signs and symbols of this fundamental text, the Book of Books, can be detected in a number of authors, from ancient to contemporary times, from Dante to Giacomo Leopardi and Italo Calvino.