Grace Delmolino

I am a feminist medievalist scholar specializing in the literature, law, and history of the Italian Middle Ages (12th-14th centuries).

My first book argues that Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), famous for the Decameron and its down-to-earth short stories about religion and sexuality, was a cutting-edge legal theorist of consent. Boccaccio studied canon law at the university in Naples and his later fictional works dramatize legal cases and comment on theories of jurisprudence. Boccaccio found a particular affinity with Gratian’s Decretum (c. 1140), a foundational textbook in the teaching of medieval canon law. Gratian and Boccaccio alike advocate for women’s—and men's—status as consenting subjects, in sharp contrast to social practice of the time.

My work on consent in matters of marriage and sexuality, originating in medieval canon law, has now expanded to encompass the broader history of consent—from sex to law to political obligation to bioethics to digital privacy—which I cover in my course Humanities 2A: Consent. Within the Italian program at UC Davis, I offer courses on Boccaccio, Dante, lyric poetry, Renaissance literature, and contemporary Italian culture.

I am also Associate Editor on the editorial board of Digital Dante, a venue for research on Dante and his world. Our collaborations in digital humanities bring innovative scholarship on Dante to a global readership.