The journal was developed in the late 1980s by
Richard Allen Shoaf of the
University of Florida and
Julian N. Wasserman of
Loyola University, New Orleans, with the help of the publisher Mario Di Cesare of
SUNY Binghamton, who founded Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (MRTS). As Shoaf has said, they "envisioned the journal as a venue in which pre-modern literature and newer theories, such as deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and feminism, could challenge each other in ongoing dialogue and arguments for the vitality and relevance of the pre-modern." The journal was published by MRTS twice a year from 1989 to 2006. In 2007, it became a quarterly published by
Maney Publishing, with Shoaf as the principal editor. In 2009, it was handed over to a new team of five editors. In 2015, Maney Publishing was acquired by Taylor and Francis, which continues to publish
Exemplaria. == Reception ==