Volume VIII of the
Poetical Works
of Browning is the second of three volumes of Browning's masterpiece,
The Ring and the Book
. The commentary, at the bottom of each page, elucidates Browning's creative and sometimes challenging use of language with reference to his correspondence, his historical sources, and his own rich experience of Italy. Previously unidentified allusions are fully explained, and a newly discovered source from a seventeenth-century Italian chronicle is presented for the first time, allowing further insight into Browning's engagement with history.