Mario Praz (1896–1982) was professor emeritus of English language and literature at the University of Rome. His books include The Romantic Agony, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, and The Flaming Heart.
"""One of the most urbane and sophisticated cultural tours ever put between two covers."" * Virginia Quarterly Review * ""Mnemosyne is really a great tour down the centuries through galleries, libraries, churches, gardens, and salons, which at every point opens up surprising and penetrating views. Mr. Praz is a man whose breadth of culture is almost unmatched. His outlook is open and humane, his insight attractive, and his mind passionately curious: he has a phenomenal capacity for bringing valuable things out of hiding."" * Yale Review * ""The lectures constitute a tour de force and, as with everything from his pen, there is much that is new and stimulating. . . . After reading this admirable volume there can be little doubt that historians of art and literature—no less than the gentle reader—will learn much from it about the problems of seeking to establish parallels between the arts."" * Apollo *"