Professor Emeritus of Italian and Comparative Literature
Research and Teaching
Professor Costa’s primary areas of interest are the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. His research centers upon Dante, the stilnovistic poets, Petrarch, patristic and medieval hermeneutics, and medieval and Renaissance philosophy and theology. He offers courses in the departments of Romance Studies, World Languages & Literatures, and Religion (focusing on the intersections between literature and religion).
Costa has written Irenic Apocalypse: Some Uses of Apocalyptic in Dante, Petrarch and Rabelais, as well as articles on Aeschylus, Virgil, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Dante, Petrarch, Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus, Montaigne, Tommaso Campanella, Christopher Smart, and Federico García Lorca. Costa is Vice-President of the International Society for the Study of Time (ISST) and General Editor of KronoScope / Journal for the Study of Time.