Editorial introduction: From Paradise to Padua

This introductory section offers an overview of allusions and references to Padua in Middle English writing, dwelling on Geoffrey Chaucer's allusion to Padua and Petrarch in the Clerk's Prologue as well as on Herod the Great's reference in the Towneley medieval play, highlighting how early on in English imagination Padua became connoted as a faraway, exotic place, as well as a seat of learning. The introduction then continues by presenting the contributions that follow to this special issue on Shakespeare and Padua, and setting them in dialogue with one another.