理查德•保羅•羅畢業於加州大學伯剋利分校，主修英語和歐洲史，後獲西南大學法學院甲等博士學位。在四十年的法律工作之餘，保羅一生都緻力於莎士比亞“意大利劇集”的研究。他花瞭二十多年遊曆瞭意大利全境，對這些戲劇進行的考察，深入到瞭劇集中直接提到或暗示的所有地點，完成瞭這次重大的文學探索。理查德•保羅•羅於2010年辭世。

Richard Paul Roe spent more than twenty years traveling the length and breadth of Italy to seek out and document the exact locations in which Shakespeare set his ten Italian Plays. Using as his compass only the exact lines spoken by characters in each play, Roe succeeded in pinpointing the location of nearly every scene in "Romeo and Juliet", "Two Gentlemen of Verona", "The Merchant of Venice", and others - and his captivating narrative of travel and scholarship reveals surprises about "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Tempest", and more, that will revolutionize the way we read Shakespeare. An introduction by the author's daughter, Hilary Roe Metternich, gives a behind-the-scenes look at her father's passion for the Bard and the lengths to which he went in pursuit of answers; and the copiously annotated, lavishly illustrated guide - including more than 150 maps, photographs, and paintings - makes for a richly compelling, deeply thought-provoking, and endlessly inspiring journey through Shakespeare's Italy.