TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Superscripts are denoted by ^ eg xvj^o.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Modern practice in Italian texts contracts (removes the space from)
vowel elisions, for example l'anno not l' anno, ch'io not ch' io.
This book, in common with some similar English books of the time, has
a space in these elisions in the original text. This space has been
retained in the etext. The only exceptions, in both the text and
etext, are in French names and phrases, such as d'Aquino and d'Anjou.
More details can be found at the end of the book.
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
FREDERIC UVEDALE. A Romance. 1901.
STUDIES IN THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 1902.
ITALY AND THE ITALIANS. Second Edition. 1902.
THE CITIES OF UMBRIA. Third Edition. 1905.
THE CITIES OF SPAIN. Third Edition. 1906.
SIGISMONDO MALATESTA. 1906.
FLORENCE AND NORTHERN TUSCANY. Second Edition. 1907.
COUNTRY WALKS ABOUT FLORENCE. 1908.
IN UNKNOWN TUSCANY. 1909.
EDITED BY EDWARD HUTTON
MEMOIRS OF THE DUKES OF URBINO.
By JAMES DENNISTOUN OF DENNISTOUN. Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and
Literature of Italy, from 1440 to 1630. New Edition, with upwards of
100 Illustrations. 3 vols. Demy 8vo. 1908.
CROWE AND CAVALCASELLE'S A NEW HISTORY OF PAINTING IN ITALY.
3 vols. 8vo. 1908-9.
[Illustration: _Traditional Portraits of Boccaccio & Fiammetta (Maria
d'Aquino)_
_From the Frescoes in the Spanish Chapel of S. Maria Novella,
Florence._]
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY BY EDWARD HUTTON
WITH PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE & NUMEROUS OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
But if the love that hath and still doth burn me
No love at length return me,
Out of my thoughts I'll set her:
Heart let her go, O heart I pray thee let her!
Say shall she go?
O no, no, no, no, no!
Fix'd in the heart, how can the heart forget her.
LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMX
PLYMOUTH: WM. BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS
TO MY FRIEND
J. L. GARVIN
THIS STUDY OF AN HEROIC LIFE
PREFACE
It might seem proper, in England at least, to preface any book
dealing frankly with the author of the _Decameron_ with an apology
for, and perhaps a defence of, its subject. I shall do nothing of
the kind. Indeed, this is not the place, if any be, to undertake the
defence of Boccaccio. His life, the facts of his life, his love, his
humanity, and his labours, plentifully set forth in this work, will
defend him with the simple of heart more eloquently than I could
hope to do. And it might seem that one who exhausted his little
patrimony in the acquirement of learning, who gave Homer back to us,
who founded or certainly fixed Italian prose, who was the friend
of Petrarch, the passionate defender of Dante, and who died in the
pursuit of knowledge, should need no defence anywhere from any one.
This book, on which I have been at work from time to time for some
years, is the result of an endeavour to set out quite frankly and
in order all that may be known of Boccaccio, his life, his love for
Fiammetta, and his work, so splendid in the Tuscan, the fruit of such
an enthusiastic and heroic labour in the Latin. It is an attempt at
a biographical and critical study of one of the greatest creative
writers of Europe, of one of the earliest humanists, in which, for
the first time, in England certainly, all the facts are placed before
the reader, and the sources and authority for these facts quoted,
cited, and named. Yet while I have tried to be as scrupulous as
possible in this respect, I hope the book will be read too by those
for whom notes have no attraction; for it was written first for
delight.
Among other things I have dealt with, the reader will find a study of
Boccaccio's attitude to Woman, and in some sort this may be said to
be the true subject of the book.
I have dealt too with Boccaccio's relation to both Dante and
Petrarch; and it was my intention to have written a chapter on
Boccaccio and Chaucer, but interesting as that subject is--and one of
the greatest desiderata in the study of Chaucer--a chapter in a long
book seemed too small for it; and again, it belongs rather to a book
on Chaucer than to one about Boccaccio. I have left it, then, for
another opportunity, or for another and a better student than myself.
In regard to the illustrations, I may say that I hoped to make them,
as it were, a chapter on Boccaccio and his work in relation to the
fine arts; but I found at last that it would be impossible to carry
this out. To begin with, I was unable to get permission to reproduce
M. Spiridon's and Mr. V. Watney's panels by Alunno di Domenico[1]
illustrating the story of Nastagio degli Onesti (_Decameron_, V,
8), which are perhaps the most beautiful paintings ever made in
illustration of one of Boccaccio's tales. In the second place,
the subject was too big to treat of in the space at my command. I
wish now that I had dealt only with the _Decameron_; but in spite
of a certain want of completeness, the examples I have been able
to reproduce will give the reader a very good idea of the large
and exquisite mass of material of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and
sixteenth centuries in Italy, France, Germany, and even in England
which in its relation to Boccaccio has still to be dealt with.
Nothing on this subject has yet been published, though something
of the sort with regard to Petrarch has been attempted. Beyond the
early part of the seventeenth century I have not sought to go, but an
examination of the work of the eighteenth century in France at any
rate should repay the student in this untouched field.
I have to thank a host of people who in many and various ways have
given me their assistance in the writing of this book. It has been
a labour of love for them as for me, and let us hope that Boccaccio
"in the third heaven with his own Fiammetta" is as grateful for their
kindness as I am.
Especially I wish to thank Mrs. Ross, of Poggio Gherardo, Mr. A. E.
Benn, of Villa Ciliegio, Professor Guido Biagi, of Florence, Mr.
Edmund Gardner, Professor Henri Hauvette, of Paris, Mr. William
Heywood, Dr. Paget Toynbee, and Mr. Charles Whibley. And I must also
express my gratitude to Messrs. J. and J. Leighton, of Brewer Street,
London, W., for so kindly placing at my disposal many of the blocks
which will be found in these pages.
EDWARD HUTTON.
CASA DI BOCCACCIO,
CORBIGNANO,
_September_, 1909.
INTRODUCTION
Of the three great writers who open the literature of the modern
world, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, it is perhaps the last who has
the greatest significance in the history of culture, of civilisation.
Without the profound mysticism of Dante or the extraordinary
sweetness and perfection of Petrarch, he was more complete than
either of them, full at once of laughter and humility and love--that
humanism which in him alone in his day was really a part of life. For
him the centre of things was not to be found in the next world but in
this. To the _Divine Comedy_ he seems to oppose the Human Comedy, the
_Decameron_, in which he not only created for Italy a classic prose,
but gave the world an ever-living book full of men and women and the
courtesy, generosity, and humanity of life, which was to be one of
the greater literary influences in Europe during some three hundred
years.
In England certainly, and indeed almost everywhere to-day, the name
of Boccaccio stands for this book, the _Decameron_. Yet the volumes
he wrote during a laborious and really uneventful life are very
numerous both in verse and prose, in Latin and in Tuscan. He began to
write before he was twenty years old, and he scarcely stayed his hand
till he lay dying alone in Certaldo in 1375. That the _Decameron_,
his greatest and most various work, should be that by which he is
most widely known, is not remarkable; it is strange, however, that of
all his works it should be the only one that is quite impersonal.
His earlier romances are without exception _romans à clef_; under a
transparent veil of allegory he tells us eagerly, even passionately,
of himself, his love, his sufferings, his agony and delight. He too
has confessed himself with the same intensity as St. Augustine; but
we refuse to hear him. Over and over again he tells his story. One
may follow it exactly from point to point, divide it into periods,
name the beginning and the ending of his love, his enthusiasms, his
youth and ripeness; yet we mark him not, but perhaps wisely reach
down the _Decameron_ from our shelves and silence him with his own
words; for in the _Decameron_ he is almost as completely hidden from
us as is Shakespeare in his plays. And yet for all this, there is a
profound unity in his work, which, if we can but see it, makes of
all his books just the acts of a drama, the drama of his life. The
_Decameron_ is already to be found in essence in the _Filocolo_, as
is the bitter melancholy of the _Corbaccio_, its mad folly too, and
the sweetness of the songs. For the truth about Boccaccio can be
summed up in one statement almost, he was a poet before all things,
not only because he could express himself in perfect verse, nor even
because of the grace and beauty of all his writing, his gifts of
sentiment and sensibility, but because he is an interpreter of nature
and of man, who knows that poetry is holy and sacred, and that one
must accept it thankfully in fear and humility.
He was the most human writer the Renaissance produced in Italy; and
since his life was so full and eager in its desire for knowledge,
it is strange that nothing of any serious account has been written
concerning him in English,[2] and this is even unaccountable when
we remember how eagerly many among our greater poets have been his
debtors. Though for no other cause yet for this it will be well to
try here with what success the allegory of his life may be solved,
the facts set in order, and the significance of his work expressed.
But no study of Boccaccio can be successful, or in any sense
complete, without a glance at the period which produced him, and
especially at those eight-and-forty years so confused in Italy,
and not in Italy alone, which lie between the death of Frederic II
and the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Henry VII and the
birth of Boccaccio in 1313. This period, not less significant in
the general history of Italy than in the history of her literature,
begins with the fall of the Empire, its failure, that is, as the sum
or at least the head, of Christendom; it includes the fall of the
medieval Papacy in 1303 and the abandonment of the Eternal City, the
exile of the Popes. These were years of immense disaster in which we
see the passing of a whole civilisation and the birth of the modern
world.
The Papacy had destroyed the Empire but had failed to establish
itself in its place. It threatened a new tyranny, but already weapons
were being forged to combat it, and little by little the Papal view
of the world, of government, was to be met by an appeal to history,
to the criticism of history, and to those political principles which
were to be the result of that criticism. In this work both Petrarch
and Boccaccio bear a noble part.
If we turn to the history of Florence we shall find that the last
thirty-five years of the thirteenth century had been, perhaps, the
happiest in her history. From the triumph of the Guelfs at Benevento
to the quarrel of _Neri_ and _Bianchi_ she was at least at peace with
herself, while in her relations with her sister cities she became
the greatest power in Tuscany. Art and Poetry flourished within her
walls. Dante, Cavalcanti, Giotto, the Pisani, and Arnolfo di Cambio
were busy with their work, and the great churches we know so well,
the beautiful palaces of the officers of the Republic were then
built with pride and enthusiasm. In 1289, the last sparks, as it was
thought, of Tuscan Ghibellinism had been stamped out at Campaldino.
There followed the old quarrel and Dante's exile.
The Ghibellines were no more, but the _Grandi_, those Guelf magnates
who had done so well at Campaldino, hating the burgher rule as
bitterly as the old nobility had done, began to exert themselves.
In the very year of the great battle we find that the peasants of
the _contrada_ were enfranchised to combat them. In 1293 the famous
Ordinances of Justice which excluded them from office were passed,
and the _Gonfaloniere_ was appointed to enforce these laws against
them. A temporary alliance of burghers and _Grandi_ in 1295 drove
Giano della Bella, the hero of these reforms, into exile, and the
government remained in the hands of the _Grandi_. That year saw
Dante's entrance into public life.
The quarrel thus begun came to crisis in 1300, the famous year of
the jubilee, when Boniface VIII seemed to hold the whole world in
his hands. The dissensions in Florence had not been lost upon the
Pope, who, apparently hoping to repress the Republic altogether and
win the obedience of the city, intrigued with the _Neri_, those
among the magnates who, unlike their fellows of the _Bianchi_
faction, among whom Dante is the most conspicuous figure, refused
to admit the Ordinances of Justice, even in their revised form, and
wished for the tyrannical rule of the old _Parte Guelfa_. Already,
as was well known, the Pope was pressing Albert of Austria for a
renunciation of the Imperial claim over Tuscany in favour of the
Holy See; and Florence, finally distracted now by the quarrels of
_Neri_ and _Bianchi_, seemed to be in imminent danger of losing
her liberty. It became necessary to redress the balance of power,
destroyed at Benevento, by an attempt to recreate the Empire. This
was the real work of the _Bianchi_--their solution of the greatest
question of their time. The actual solution was to come, however,
from their opponents: not from the leaders of the _Neri_ it is true,
but from the people themselves. These leaders were but tyrants in
disguise: they served any cause to establish their own lordship.
Corso Donati, for instance, the head and front of the _Neri_, was of
an old Ghibelline stock, yet he trafficked with the Pope, not for
the Church, we may be sure, nor to give Florence to the Holy See,
but that he might himself rule the city. Nor did the Pope disdain to
use him. Alarmed even in Rome by the republican sentiments of the
populace, who wished to rule themselves even as the Florentines, he
desired above all things to bring Florence into his power. On May
15, 1300, the Pope despatched a letter to the Bishop of Florence,
in which he asked: "Is not the Pontiff supreme lord over all, and
particularly over Florence, which for especial reasons is bound to
be subject to him? Do not emperors and kings of the Romans yield
submission to us, yet are they not superior to Florence? During the
vacancy of the Imperial throne, did not the Holy See appoint King
Charles of Anjou Vicar-General of Tuscany?" Thus as Villari says, "in
a rising _crescendo_," he threatened the Florentines that he would
"not only launch his interdict and excommunication against them, but
inflict the utmost injury on their citizens and merchants, cause
their property to be pillaged and confiscated in all parts of the
world, and release all their debtors from the duty of payment." The
_Neri_, fearing the people might, with that impudent claim before
them, side with the _Bianchi_, induced the Pope to send the Cardinal
of Acquasparta to arrange a pacification. But though the city gave
him many promises, she would not invest him with the Balia.
Meanwhile the Pope, set on the subjection of Florence, without
counting the cost, urged Charles of Valois, the brother of Philip
IV of France, to march into Tuscany. Nor was Charles of Anjou,
King of Naples, less eager to have his aid against the Sicilians.
Joined by the exiles in November, 1301, he entered Florence with
some 1200 horse, part French, part Italian. His mission was to crush
the _Bianchi_ and the people, and to uplift the _Neri_. He came at
the request of the Pope, and, so far as he himself was interested,
for booty; yet he swore in S. Maria Novella to keep the peace. On
that same day, November 5, Corso Donati entered the city with an
armed force. The French joined in the riot, the Priors were driven
from their new palace, and the city sacked by the soldiers with the
help of the _Neri_. The Pope had succeeded in substituting black
for white, that was all. A new "peace-maker" failed altogether. The
proscription, already begun, continued, and before January 27, 1302,
Dante went into exile.
But if the Pope had failed to do more than establish the _Neri_ in
the government of Florence, Corso Donati had failed also; he had not
won the lordship of the city. He tried again, splitting the _Neri_
into two factions, and Florence was not to possess herself in peace
till his death in a last attempt in 1308. It was during these years
so full of disaster that Petrarch was born at Arezzo on July 20, 1304.
The medieval idea of the Papacy has been expressed once and for
all by S. Thomas Aquinas. In his mind so profoundly theological,
abhorring variety, the world was to be governed, if at all, by a
constitutional monarchy, strong enough to enforce order, but not to
establish a tyranny. The first object of every Christian society,
the salvation of the soul, was to be achieved by the priest under
the absolute rule of the Pope. Under the old dispensation, as he
admitted, the priest had been subject to the king, but under the new
dispensation the king was subject to the priest in matters touching
the law of Christ. Thus if the king were careless of religion or
schismatic or heretical, the Church might deprive him of his power
and by excommunication release his subjects from their allegiance.
This supreme authority is vested in the Pope, who is infallible, and
from whom there can be no appeal at any time as to what is to be
believed or what condemned.
Before these claims the Empire had fallen in 1266; but a reaction,
the result of the success of Boniface, soon set in, and we find
the most perfect expression of the revived and reformed claims of
the Empire in the _De Monarchia_, which Dante Alighieri wrote in
exile. Dante's Empire was by no means merely a revival of what the
Imperial idea had become in its conflicts with the Holy See. It was
nevertheless as hopeless an anachronism as the dream of S. Thomas
Aquinas, and even less clairvoyant of the future, for it disregarded
altogether the spirit to which the future belonged, the spirit of
nationalism. With a mind as theological as S. Thomas's, Dante hated
variety not less than he, and rather than tolerate the confusion of
the innumerable cities and communes into which Italy was divided,
where there was life, he would have thrust the world back into
Feudalism and the Middle Age from which it was already emerging,
he would have established over all Italy a German king. He was
dreaming of the Roman Empire. The end for which we must strive, he
would seem to say in the _De Monarchia_, that epitaph of the Empire,
is unity; let that be granted. And since that is the end of all
society, how shall we obtain it but by obedience to one head--the
Emperor. And this Empire--so easy is it to mistake the past for the
future--belongs of right to the Roman people who won it long ago. And
what they won Christ sanctioned, for He was born within its confines.
And yet again He recognised it, for He received at the hands of a
Roman judge the sentence under which He bore our sorrows. Nor does
the Empire derive from the Pope or through the Pope, but from God
immediately; for the foundation of the Church is Christ, but the
Empire was before the Church. Yet let Cæsar be reverent to Peter, as
the first-born should be reverent to his father.
So much for the philosophical defence of the reaction. It is rarely,
after all, that a rigidly logical conception of society, of the
State, has any existence in reality. The future, as we know, lay
with quite another theory. Yet which of us to-day but in his secret
heart dreams ever more hopefully of a new unity, that is indeed no
stranger to the old, but in fact the resurrection of the Empire, of
Christendom, in which alone we can be one? After all, is it not now
as then, the noblest hope that can inspire our lives?
Already, before the death of Boniface VIII, the last Pope to die in
Rome for nearly a hundred years, Philip IV of France had asserted
the rights of the State against the claims of the Papal monarchy.
The future was his, and his success was to be so great that for more
than seventy years the Papacy was altogether under the influence of
France, the first of the great nations of the Continent to become
self-conscious. Thus when Boniface died broken-hearted in 1303, it
was the medieval Papacy which lay in state beside him. Two years
later, after the pathetic and ineffectual nine months' reign of
Benedict XI, Clement V, Bertrand de Goth, an Aquitanian, was elected,
and, like his predecessor, fearful before the turbulent Romans and
the confusion of Italy, in 1305 fled away to Avignon, which King
Charles II of Naples held as Count of Anjou on the borders of the
French kingdom. The Papacy had abandoned the Eternal City and had
come under the influence of the French king. Yet in spite of every
disaster the Pope and the Emperor remained the opposed centres of
European affairs. No one as yet realised the possibility of doing
without them, but each power sought rather to use them for its own
end. In this political struggle France held the best position; the
Pope was a Frenchman and so her son; there remained as spoil, the
Empire.
On May 1, 1308, Albert of Hapsburg had been murdered by his nephew;
the election of a new King of the Romans, the future Emperor, fell
pat to Philip's ambitions. He immediately supported the candidature
of his brother, Charles of Valois; but in this he reckoned without
the Pope, who with the Angevins in Naples and himself in Avignon had
no wish to see the Empire also in the hands of France. His position
forbade him openly to oppose Philip, but secretly he gave his support
to Henry of Luxemburg, who was elected as Henry VII on 27 November,
1308.
A German educated in France, the lord of a petty state, Henry, in
spite of the nobility of his nature, of which we hear so much and see
so little, had but feeble Latin sympathies and no real power of his
own. He dreamed of the universal empire like a true German, believing
that the feudal union of Germany and Italy which had always been
impossible was the future of the world. With this mirage before his
eyes he raised the imperial flag and set out southward; and for a
moment it seemed as though the stars had stopped in their courses.
For he was by no means alone in his dream. Every disappointed
ambition in Italy, noble and ignoble, greeted him with a feverish
enthusiasm. The Bianchi and the exiled Ghibellines joined hands,
enormous hopes were conceived, and in his triumph private vengeance
and public hate thought to find achievement. But when Henry entered
Italy in September, 1310, he soon found he had reckoned without the
Florentines, who had called together the Guelf cities, and, leaguing
themselves with King Robert the Wise of Naples, formed what was, in
fact, an Italian confederation to defend freedom and their common
independence. It is true that in these acts Florence thought only of
present safety: she was both right and fortunate; but in allying
herself with King Robert and espousing the cause of France and the
Pope she contributed to that triumph which was to prove for centuries
the most dangerous of all to Italian liberty and independence.
Bitter with loneliness, imprisoned in the adamant of his personality,
Dante, amid the rocks of the Casentino, hurled his curses on
Florence, and not on Florence alone. Is there, I wonder, anything but
hatred and abuse of the cities of his Fatherland in all his work?
He has judged his country as God Himself will not judge it, and he
kept his anger for ever. In the astonishing and disgraceful letters
written in the spring of 1311 he urged Henry to attack his native
city. Hailing this German king--and the Florentines would call him
nothing else--as the "Lamb of God Who taketh away the sins of the
world," he asks him: "What may it profit thee to subdue Cremona?
Brescia, Bergamo, and other cities will continue to revolt until thou
hast extirpated the root of the evil. Art thou ignorant perhaps where
the rank fox lurketh in hiding? The beast drinketh from the Arno,
polluting the waters with its jaws. Knowest thou not that Florence is
its name?..." Henry, however, took no heed as yet of that terrible
voice crying in the wilderness. He entered Rome before attacking
Florence, in May, 1312. He easily won the Capitol, but was fiercely
opposed by King Robert when he tried to reach S. Peter's to win
the imperial crown, and from Castel S. Angelo he was repulsed with
heavy loss. The Roman people, however, presently took his part, and
by threats and violence compelled the bishops to crown him in the
Lateran on June 29.
If Rome greeted him, however, she was alone. Florence remained
the head and front of the unbroken League. Those _scelestissimi
Florentini_, as Dante calls them, still refused to hail him as
anything but Enemy, German King and Tyrant. The fine political
sagacity of Florence, which makes hers the only history worth
reading among the cities of Central Italy, was never shown to better
advantage or more fully justified in the event than when she dared to
send her greatest son into exile and to proclaim his Emperor "German
king" and "enemy." "Remember," she wrote to the people of Brescia,
"that the safety of all Italy and all the Guelfs depends on your
resistance. The Latins must always hold the Germans in enmity, seeing
that they are opposed in act and deed, in manners and soul; not only
is it impossible to serve, but even to hold any intercourse with that
race."
At last the Emperor decided to follow Dante's advice and "slay the
new Goliath." This was easier to talk of in the Casentino than to do.
From mid-September to the end of October the Imperial army lay about
the City of the Lily, never daring to attack. Then the Emperor raised
the siege and set out for Poggibonsi, his health ruined by anxiety
and hardship, and his army, as was always the case both before and
since, broken and spoiled by the Italian summer. He spent the winter
and spring between Poggibonsi and Pisa, then with some idea of
retrieving all by invading Naples, he set off southward in August to
meet his death on S. Bartholomew's Day, poisoned, as some say, at
Buonconvento.
And Florence announced to her allies: "Jesus Christ hath procured the
death of that most haughty tyrant Henry, late Count of Luxemburg,
whom the rebellious persecutors of the Church and the treacherous
foes of ourselves and you call King of the Romans and Emperor."
In the very year of Henry's death, as we suppose, Boccaccio was born
in Paris. The Middle Age had come to an end. The morning of the
Renaissance had already broken on the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. Berenson (_Burlington Magazine_, Vol. I (1903), p. 1 _et
seq._) gives these panels to Alunno di Domenico; Mr. Horne to
Botticelli. See CROWE and CAVALCASELLE (ed. E. Hutton), _A New
History of Painting in Italy_ (Dent, 1909), Vol. II, pp. 409 and 471,
and works there cited.
[2] The best study is that of J. A. Symonds's _Boccaccio as Man and
Author_ (Nimmo, 1896). It is unfortunately among the less serious
works of that scholar.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION xi
CHAPTER
I. BOCCACCIO'S PARENTAGE, BIRTH, AND CHILDHOOD 3
II. HIS ARRIVAL IN NAPLES--HIS YEARS WITH THE
MERCHANT--HIS ABANDONMENT OF TRADE AND
ENTRY ON THE STUDY OF CANON LAW 15
III. HIS MEETING WITH FIAMMETTA AND THE PERIODS
OF THEIR LOVE STORY 27
IV. THE YEARS OF COURTSHIP--THE REWARD--THE
BETRAYAL--THE RETURN TO FLORENCE 41
V. BOCCACCIO'S EARLY WORKS--THE _FILOCOLO_--THE
_FILOSTRATO_--THE _TESEIDE_--THE _AMETO_--THE
_FIAMMETTA_--THE _NINFALE FIESOLANO_ 61
VI. IN FLORENCE--HIS FATHER'S SECOND MARRIAGE--THE
DUKE OF ATHENS 96
VII. IN NAPLES--THE ACCESSION OF GIOVANNA--THE
MURDER OF ANDREW OF HUNGARY--THE VENGEANCE 108
VIII. IN ROMAGNA--THE PLAGUE--THE DEATH OF FIAMMETTA 119
IX. THE _RIME_--THE SONNETS TO FIAMMETTA 130
X. BOCCACCIO AS AMBASSADOR--THE MEETING WITH
PETRARCH 145
XI. TWO EMBASSIES 162
XII. BOCCACCIO'S ATTITUDE TO WOMAN--THE _CORBACCIO_ 170
XIII. LEON PILATUS AND THE TRANSLATION OF HOMER--THE
CONVERSION OF BOCCACCIO 189
XIV. THE EMBASSIES TO THE POPE--VISITS TO VENICE
AND NAPLES--BOCCACCIO'S LOVE OF CHILDREN 207
XV. PETRARCH AND BOCCACCIO--THE LATIN WORKS 223
XVI. DANTE AND BOCCACCIO--THE _VITA_--AND THE
_COMENTO_ 249
XVII. ILLNESS AND DEATH 279
XVIII. THE _DECAMERON_ 291
APPENDICES
I. THE DATES OF BOCCACCIO'S ARRIVAL IN NAPLES
AND OF HIS MEETING WITH FIAMMETTA 319
II. DOCUMENT OF THE SALE OF "CORBIGNANO" (CALLED
NOW "CASA DI BOCCACCIO") BY BOCCACCIO IN
1336 325
III. FROM "LA VILLEGGIATURA DI MAIANO," A MS.
BY RUBERTO GHERARDI; A COPY OF WHICH
IS IN POSSESSION OF MRS. ROSS, OF POGGIO
GHERARDO, NEAR SETTIGNANO, FLORENCE 335
IV. THE ACROSTIC OF THE _AMOROSA VISIONE_ DEDICATING
THE POEM TO FIAMMETTA 348
V. THE WILL OF GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO 350
VI. ENGLISH WORKS ON BOCCACCIO 355
VII. BOCCACCIO AND CHAUCER AND SHAKESPEARE 360
VIII. SYNOPSIS OF THE _DECAMERON_, TOGETHER WITH
SOME WORKS TO BE CONSULTED 367
IX. AN INDEX TO THE _DECAMERON_ 394
INDEX 409
ILLUSTRATIONS
TRADITIONAL PORTRAITS OF BOCCACCIO AND FIAMMETTA (MARIA
D'AQUINO) _Frontispiece_
From the frescoes in the Spanish Chapel at S. Maria Novella,
Florence. Photogravure.
_To face page_
THE BURNING OF THE MASTER OF THE TEMPLE 6
From a miniature in the French version of the _De Casibus
Virorum_, made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late
XV century. (Brit. Mus. Showcase V, MS. 126.)
CASA DI BOCCACCIO, CORBIGNANO, NEAR FLORENCE 12
KING ROBERT OF NAPLES CROWNED BY S. LOUIS OF TOULOUSE 18
From the fresco by Simone Martini in S. Lorenzo, Naples.
POPE JOAN 24
A woodcut from the _De Claris Mulieribus_. (Berne, 1539.)
(By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
LUCRECE 30
A woodcut from _De Claris Mulieribus_. (Berne, 1539.) (By
the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
BOCCACCIO AND MAINARDI CAVALCANTI 36
By the Dutch engraver called "The Master of the Subjects
in the Boccaccio." _De Casibus Virorum._ (Strasburg, 1476.)
SAPOR MOUNTING OVER THE PROSTRATE VALERIAN 42
By the Dutch engraver called "The Master of the Subjects in
the Boccaccio." _De Casibus Virorum._ (Strasburg, 1476.)
MANLIUS THROWN INTO THE TIBER 48
By the Dutch engraver called "The Master of the Subjects in
the Boccaccio." _De Casibus Virorum._ (Strasburg, 1476.)
ALLEGORY OF WEALTH AND POVERTY 54
From a miniature in the French version of the _De Casibus
Virorum_, made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late
XV century. (Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. MS. XII.)
THE MURDER OF THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS 62
From a miniature in the French version of the _De Casibus
Virorum_, made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late
XV century. (Brit. Mus. Showcase V, MS. 126.)
A WOODCUT FROM _DES NOBLES MALHEUREUX (DE CASIBUS
VIRORUM_). PARIS, 1515 68
This cut originally appears in the _Troy Book_. (T. Bonhomme,
Paris, 1484.) Unique copy at Dresden. (By the courtesy of
Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
MARCUS MANLIUS HURLED FROM THE TARPEIAN ROCK 74
An English woodcut from Lydgate's _Falles of Princes_.
(Pynson, London, 1527.) It is a copy in reverse from the
French translation of the _De Casibus_. (Du Pré, Paris,
1483.) (By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
THE TITLE OF THE _NOBLES MALHEUREUX_ (_DE CASIBUS_).
PARIS, 1538 80
(By the Courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
FRONTISPIECE OF THE _DECAMERON_. VENICE, 1492 86
CHAPTER HEADING FROM THE _DECAMERON_. VENICE, 1492 92
THE THEFT OF CALANDRINO'S PIG (_DEC._, VIII, 6) 98
GHINO AND THE ABBOT (_DEC._, X, 2) 98
Woodcuts from the _Decameron_. (Venice, 1492.)
THE DUKE OF ATHENS 104
THE EXECUTION OF FILIPPA LA CATANESE 104
From miniatures in the French version of the _De Casibus
Virorum_, made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. Ms. Late
XV century. (Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. Ms. XII.)
CIMON AND IPHIGENIA (_DEC._, V, 1) 110
From a miniature in the French version of the _Decameron_,
made in 1414 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century.
(Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. MS. XIII.)
GULFARDO AND GUASPARRUOLO (_DEC._, VIII, 1) 116
From a miniature in the French version of the _Decameron_,
made in 1414 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century.
(Brit. Museum. Rothschild Bequest, MS. XIV.)
MADONNA FRANCESCA AND HER LOVERS (_DEC_., IX, 1) 124
From a miniature in the French version of the _Decameron_,
made in 1414 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century.
(Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. MS. XIV.)
THE KNIGHT WHO THOUGHT HIMSELF ILL-REWARDED (_DEC._, X, 1) 132
From a miniature in the French version of the _Decameron_,
made in 1414 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century.
(Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. MS. XIV.)
THE STORY OF GRISELDA (_DEC._, X, 10) 138
From the picture by Pesellino in the Morelli Gallery at
Bergamo.
THE STORY OF GRISELDA (_DEC._, X, 10) 146
i. The Marquis of Saluzzo, while out hunting, meets with
Griselda, a peasant girl, and falls in love; he clothes her
in fine things. From the picture in the National Gallery
by (?) Bernardino Fungai.
THE STORY OF GRISELDA (_DEC._, X, 10) 152
ii. Her two children are taken from her, she is divorced,
stripped, and sent back to her father's house. From the
picture in the National Gallery by (?) Bernardino Fungai.
THE STORY OF GRISELDA (_DEC._, X, 10) 158
iii. A banquet is prepared for the new bride; Griselda is
sent for to serve, but is reinstated in her husband's
affections and finds her children. From the picture in the
National Gallery by (?) Bernardino Fungai.
THE PALACE OF THE POPES AT AVIGNON 164
MASETTO AND THE NUNS (_Dec._, iii, 1) 174
In 1538 this woodcut appears in Tansillo's _Stanze_. (By
the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
MASETTO AND THE NUNS (_Dec._, iii, 1) 174
A woodcut from _Le Cento Novelle_ in ottava rima. (Venice,
1554.) (By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
MONNA TESSA EXORCISING THE DEVIL. (_Dec._, vii, 1) 184
A woodcut from the _Decameron_. (Venice, 1525.)
MONNA TESSA EXORCISING THE DEVIL. (_Dec._, vii, 1) 184
Appeared in Sansovino's _Le Cento Novelle_ (Venice, 1571.)
(By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
A WOODCUT FROM THE _DECAMERON_. (STRASBURG, 1535) 194
(By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
TITLE OF THE SPANISH TRANSLATION OF THE _DECAMERON_
(VALLADOLID, 1539) 204
(By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
A WOODCUT FROM THE _DECAMERON_ (VENICE, 1602.) TITLE TO
DAY V 214
(By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
PETRARCH AND BOCCACCIO DISCUSSING 224
From a miniature in the French version of the _De Casibus
Virorum_, made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late
XV century. (Brit. Mus. Showcase V, MS. 126.)
POMPEIA, PAULINA, AND SENECA 230
A woodcut from the _De Claris Mulieribus_ (Ulm, 1473), cap.
92. (By the courtesy of Messrs. J and J. Leighton.)
EPITHARIS 234
A woodcut from the _De Claris Mulieribus_ (Ulm, 1493), cap.
91. (By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
PAULINA, MUNDUS, AND THE GOD ANUBIS 238
A woodcut from the _De Claris Mulieribus_ (Ulm, 1473), cap.
89. (By the courtesy of Messrs. J. and J. Leighton.)
THE TORTURE OF REGULUS 244
A woodcut from Lydgate's _Falle of Princes of John Bochas_.
(London, 1494.)
BOCCACCIO DISCUSSING 250
From a miniature in the French version of the _De Casibus
Virorum_, made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late
XV century. (Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. MS. XII.)
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO 265
From the fresco in S. Apollonia, Florence. By Andrea dal
Castagno (1396(?)-1457).
CERTALDO 280
BOCCACCIO'S HOUSE IN CERTALDO 284
ROOM IN BOCCACCIO'S HOUSE AT CERTALDO 288
THE LADIES AND YOUTHS OF THE _DECAMERON_ LEAVING FLORENCE 292
From a miniature in the French version of the _Decameron_,
made in 1414 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century.
(Brit. Mus. Rothschild Bequest. MS. XIV.)
POGGIO GHERARDO, NEAR SETTIGNANO, FLORENCE 298
(The scene of the first two days of the _Decameron_.)
VILLA PALMIERI, NEAR FLORENCE 302
(The scene of the third and following days of the
_Decameron_.)
LA VALLE DELLE DONNE 306
From a print of the XVIII century in Baldelli's _Vita di
Gio. Boccaccio_.
TITLE PAGE OF VOLUME II OF THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE
_DECAMERON_ (ISAAC JAGGARD, 1620.) 312
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
CHAPTER I
1313-1323
BOCCACCIO'S PARENTAGE, BIRTH, AND CHILDHOOD
The facts concerning the life and work of Giovanni Boccaccio, though
they have been traversed over and over again by modern students,[3]
are still for the most part insecure and doubtful; while certain
questions, of chronology especially, seem to be almost insoluble. To
begin with, we are uncertain of the place of his birth and of the
identity of his mother, of whom in his own person he never speaks.
And though it is true that he calls himself "of Certaldo,"[4] a small
town at that time in the Florentine _contado_ where he had some
property, and where indeed he came at last to die, we have reason
to believe that it was not his birthplace. The opinion now most
generally professed by Italian scholars is that he was born in Paris
of a French mother; and, while we cannot assert this as a fact, very
strong evidence, both from within and from without his work, can
be brought to support it. It will be best, perhaps, to examine this
evidence, whose corner-stone is his assertion to Petrarch that he was
born in 1313,[5] as briefly as possible.
The family of Boccaccio[6] was originally from Certaldo in
Valdelsa,[7] his father being the Florentine banker and money-changer
Boccaccio di Chellino da Certaldo, commonly called Boccaccino.[8] We
know very little about him, but we are always told that he was of
very humble condition. That he was of humble birth seems certain,
but his career, what we know of his career, would suggest that he
was in a position of considerable importance. We know that in 1318
he was in business in Florence, the name of his firm being Simon
Jannis Orlandini, Cante et Jacobus fratres et filii q. Ammannati
et Boccaccinus Chelini de Certaldo. In the first half of 1324 he
was among the _aggiunti deputati_ of the _Arte del Cambio_ for the
election of the _Consiglieri della Mercanzia_;[9] in 1326 he was
himself one of the five Consiglieri; in the latter part of 1327 he
represented the Società de' Bardi in Naples, and was very well known
to King Robert;[10] while in 1332 he was one of the _Fattori_ for
the same _Società_ in Paris, a post at least equivalent to that of a
director of a bank to-day. These were positions of importance, and
could not have been held by a person of no account.
As a young man, in 1310, we know he was in business in Paris, for
on May 12 in that year fifty-four Knights Templars were slaughtered
there,[11] and this Boccaccio tells us his father saw.[12] That
there was at that time a considerable Florentine business in
France in spite of those years of disaster--Henry VII had just
entered Italy--is certain. In 1311, indeed, we find the Florentines
addressing a letter to the King of France,[13] lamenting that at
such a moment His Majesty should have taken measures hurtful to the
interests of their merchants, upon whom the prosperity of their city
so largely depended.
Boccaccio di Chellino seems to have remained in Paris in
business;[14] that he was still there in 1313 we know, for in that
year, on March 11, Jacques de Molay, Master of the Templars, was
executed, and Giovanni tells us that his father was present.[15] If,
then, Boccaccio was speaking the truth when he told Petrarch he was
born in 1313, he must have been conceived, and was almost certainly
born, in Paris.
[Illustration: THE BURNING OF THE MASTER OF THE TEMPLE
_From a miniature in the French version of the "De Casibus Virorum,"
made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century. (Brit.
Mus. Showcase V, MS. 126.)_]
Let us now examine such evidence as we may gather from the allegories
of his own poems and plays, though there he speaks in parables. In
two of his works at least--the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_--Boccaccio
seems to be speaking of himself in the characters of Idalagos[16] and
Caleone and Ibrida. The _Ameto_, like the _Filocolo_, was written to
give expression to his love for Fiammetta, the bastard daughter of
King Robert of Naples. There he says that Caleone (whom we suppose
to be in some sort himself) was born not far from the place whence
Fiammetta's mother (whom he has told us was French) drew her origin.
Again, in another part of the same book the story is related of
a young Italian merchant, not distinguished by birth or gentle
breeding, who went to Paris and there seduced a young French widow.
The fruit of their intercourse was a boy, who received the name of
Ibrida. The evidence to be gathered from the _Filocolo_ is even more
precise, but, briefly, it may be said to confirm the story in the
_Ameto_.[17] We find there, however, that the name of the father was
Eucomos, which may be bad Greek for Boccaccio; that the name of the
mother was Gannai, which might seem to be an anagram for Giovanna or
Gianna; and that the father deserted the mother in order to marry
Gharamita,[18] which sounds like an anagram for Margherita, and in
fact we find that Boccaccio di Chellino did marry almost certainly
about 1314 Margherita di Gian Donato de' Martoli.[19]
The result then of these allegorical allusions in the _Ameto_ and
the _Filocolo_ is to support the theory based on the few facts we
possess, and to supplement it. That theory absolutely depends, so
far as we rely upon facts for its confirmation, on Boccaccio's own
statement, as reported by Petrarch, that he was born in 1313. If he
was born in 1313, he was conceived and born in Paris, for we know
that Boccaccio di Chellino was there in the years between 1310 and
1313. The _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_ bear this out, and lead us to
believe that his mother was a certain Gianna or Gannai (Jeanne,
Giovanna), that he was born out of wedlock, and that his father
deserted his mother, and not long after married Gharamita, as we
suppose Margherita di Gian Donato de' Martoli.
Turning now to the evidence of his contemporaries, we shall find that
just this was the opinion commonly received, so much so that the
Italian translator of Filippo Villani's _Lives_ actually changed the
words of that author and forced him to agree with it. "His father,"
says this adapter,[20] "was Boccaccio of Certaldo, a village of the
Florentine dominion. He was a man distinguished by excellence of
manners. The course of his commercial affairs brought him to Paris,
where he resided for a season, and being free and pleasant in the
temper of his mind, was no less gay and well inclined to love by the
complexion of his constitution. There then it befell that he was
inspired by love for a girl of Paris, belonging to the class between
nobility and bourgeoisie, for whom he conceived the most violent
passion; and, as the admirers of Giovanni assert, she became his wife
and afterwards the mother of Giovanni."
As his admirers assert! But others were not slow to say that his
father and mother were never married; and indeed, this without doubt
was the ordinary opinion.
In the true version of Filippo Villani's _Lives_,[21] written in
Latin, we read that he was the son of his natural father,[22] and
that he was born at Certaldo. Domenico Aretino[23] agrees that
Certaldo was his birthplace, and adds that in his opinion Boccaccio
was a bastard. Again, Salvini and Manni, following perhaps the
well-known sonnet of Acquettino, say he was born in Florence.[24]
In all this confusion we are like to lose our way, and it is
therefore not surprising that modern scholars are divided in opinion.
Tiraboschi[25] remains undecided. Baldelli[26] thinks he was born
in Paris and was illegitimate; Ginguené, Witte, Carducci, Landau,
Hortis, Antona Traversi, and Crescini agree with Baldelli--and,
indeed, we find only two modern students who give Florence as his
birthplace, to wit Corazzini[27] and Koerting[28], who agree,
however, that he was a bastard.
It will thus be seen that the weight of opinion is on the side of
the evidence, and that it certainly seems to have been shown that
Boccaccio was born out of wedlock in Paris in 1313, and that his
mother's name was Jeannette or Jeanne[29]. It is probable that
Boccaccio was brought still a tiny baby to Florence, but we cannot
be sure of this, for though his father seems to have returned in
1314,[30] and almost at once to have married Margherita di Gian
Donato de' Martoli, it is not certain that Giovanni accompanied him.
Indeed the _Filocolo_ seems to suggest that he did not.[31] However
that may be, he was "in his first infancy" when he came to Tuscany,
as he tells us in the _Ameto_, "fanciullo, cercai i regni Etrurii."
The first river he saw was the Arno, "mihi ante alios omnes ab
ipsa infantia cognitus"; and his boyhood was spent on that little
hill described in the _Filocolo_, "piccolo poggio pieno di marine
chiocciole," and covered with "salvatichi cerri," in the house of his
father, "nel suo grembo," as he says in the _Fiammetta_.
Where was this hill dark with oaks where one might find sea-shells,
the tiny shells of sea-snails? We do not know for certain. Some have
thought it to be the hill of Certaldo,[32] but this seems scarcely
likely, for we know that old Boccaccio was resident in Florence in
1318, and Boccaccio himself tells us that his boyhood was spent not
in a house belonging to his father, but "nel suo grembo," literally
in his father's lap.[33] Again, the country which he loved best and
has described with the greatest love and enthusiasm is that between
the village of Settignano and the city of Fiesole, north and east
of Florence. As though unable to forget the lines of just those
hills, the shadows on the woods there, the darkness of the cypresses
over the olives, he returns to them again and again. The _Ninfale
Fiesolano_ is entirely devoted to this country, its woods and hills
and streams; he speaks of it also in the _Ameto_,[34] it is the
setting of the _Decameron_; while the country about Certaldo does not
seem to have specially appealed to him, certainly not in the way the
countryside of one's childhood never ceases to do.
It is, then, to the hills about Settignano, to the woods above the
Mensola and the valley of the Affrico, that we should naturally turn
to look for the scenes of his boyhood. And indeed any doubt of his
presence there might seem to be dismissed by a document discovered by
Gherardi, which proves that on the 18th of May, 1336, by a contract
drawn up by Ser Salvi di Dini, Messer Boccaccio di Chellino da
Certaldo, lately dwelling in the parish of S. Pier Maggiore and then
in that of S. Felicità, sold to Niccolò di Vegna, who bought for
Niccolò the son of Paolo his nephew, the _poderi_ with houses called
Corbignano, partly in the parish of S. Martino a Mensola and partly
in that of S. Maria a Settignano.[35] This villa of old Boccaccio's
exists to-day at Corbignano, and bears his name, Casa di Boccaccio,
and though it has been rebuilt much remains from his day--part of the
old tower that has been broken down and turned into a loggia, here
a ruined fresco, there a spoiled inscription.[36] Here, doubtless,
within sound of Mensola and Affrico, within sight of Florence
and Fiesole, "not too far from the city nor too near the gate,"
Giovanni's childhood was passed.
Of those early years we have naturally very little knowledge. Before
he was seven years old, as he himself tells us,[37] he was set to
learn to read and write. Then he was placed in the care of Giovanni
di Domenico Mazzuoli da Strada, father of the more famous Zanobi, to
begin the study of "Grammatica."[38] With Mazzuoli he began Latin
then,[39] but presently his father, who had already destined him for
the counting-house, took him from the study of "Grammatica" and, as
Giovanni tells us, made him give his time to "Arismetrica."[40] Then,
if we may believe the _Filocolo_, he took him into his business,
where he learned, no doubt, to keep books of account and saw some of
the mysteries of banking and money-lending. Against this mode of life
he conceived then a most lively hatred, which was to increase rather
than to diminish as he grew older. Such work, he assures us in his
_Commentary_ on the _Divine Comedy_, cannot be followed without sin.
Great wealth, he tells us in the _Filocolo_, prohibits, or at least
spoils virtue: there is nothing better or more honest than to
live in a moderate poverty; while in the _De Genealogiis Deorum_ he
says poverty means tranquillity of soul: for riches are the enemy of
quietness and a torment of the mind.
[Illustration: CASA DI BOCCACCIO, CORBIGNANO, NEAR FLORENCE]
But we know nothing of his childhood, only it seems to have been
unhappy. Till his return from Naples many year later, in spite of
his hatred for business, he seems always to have got on well with
his father.[41] In remembering words which he then wrote concerning
him[42] we must remind ourselves that Boccaccino was at that time
an old man, and had probably lost those "excellent manners" of
which Villani speaks; and by then, too, Giovanni had altogether
disappointed him, by forsaking first business, and later the study
of Canon Law. His childhood seems to have been unhappy then not from
any fault or want of care on his father's part, though no doubt his
hatred of business had something to do with it; but the true cause of
the unhappiness, and even, as he says, of the fear which haunted his
boyhood, was almost certainly Margherita, his stepmother, with whom
he doubtless managed to live well enough till her son Francesco was
born.
We have already relied so much on the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_
that it will only confuse us to forsake them now. In the former,[43]
he tells us that one day the young shepherd, Idalagos (himself),
following his father, saw two bears, who glared at him with fierce
and terrible eyes in which he saw a desire for his death, so that
he was afraid and fled away from the paternal fields to follow his
calling in other woods. These two bears who chased Giovanni from
home, not directly but indirectly, by causing the fear which hatred
always rouses in the young, were, it seems, Margherita and her son
Francesco, born about 1321.
It may well be that Boccaccino had come to the conclusion about this
time that Giovanni would never make a banker, and hoping yet to see
him prosperous in the Florentine manner, sent him to Naples to learn
to be a merchant. If we add to this inference the evidence of the
allegory of the two bears in the _Filocolo_, we may conclude that
his father, disappointed with him already, was not hard to persuade
when Margherita, loath to see the little bastard beside her own son
Francesco, urged his departure.
All this, however, is conjecture. We know nothing of Boccaccio's
early years save that his father sent him to Naples to learn business
while he was still young, as is generally believed in 1330, but as
we may now think, not without good reason, in 1323, when he was ten
years old.[44]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] For a full bibliography see GUIDO TRAVERSARI, _Bibliografia
Boccaccesca_ (Città di Castello, 1907), Vol. I (Scritti intorno al
Boccaccio e alla fortuna delle sue opere).
[4] He commonly signs himself "Joannes Boccaccius" and "Giovanni da
Certaldo." In his Will he describes himself as "Joannes olim Boccacii
de Certaldo," and in the epitaph he wrote for his tomb we read
"Patria Certaldum."
[5] See PETRARCA, _Senili_, VIII, i., Lett. del 20 luglio, 1366 (in
traduz. Fracassetti, p. 445): "Conciossiachè tu devi sapere, e il
sappian pure quanti non hanno a schifo quest' umile origine, che
nell' anno 1304 di quest' ultima età, cui dà nome e principio Gesù
Cristo fonte ed autore di ogni mia speranza, sullo spuntare dell'
alba, il lunedì 20 luglio io nacqui al mondo nella città di Arezzo,
e nella strada dell' Orto.... Ed oggi pure è lunedì, siamo pur oggi
al 20 di luglio e corre l' anno 1366. Conta sulle dita e vedrai che
son passati 62 anni da che toccai l' inquieta soglia di questa vita;
sì che oggi appunto, e in quest' ora medesima, io pongo il piede su
quel che dicono anno tremendo sessagesimo terzo, e se tu non menti,
e, secondo il costume che dissi de' giovani, qualcuno pure tu non te
ne scemi nell' ordine del nascere, io ti precedo di nove anni." Then
if Petrarch was born in 1304, Boccaccio was born in 1313. FILIPPO
VILLANI, _Le Vite d' uomini illustri Fiorentini_ (Firenze, 1826), p.
12, tells us that Boccaccio died in 1375, aged sixty-two.
[6] Cf. DAVIDSOHN, _Il Padre di Gio. Boccacci_ in _Arch. St.
It._, Ser. V, Vol. XXIII, p. 144. IDEM, _Forschungen zur
Geschichte von Florenz_ (Berlin, 1901), pp. 172, 182, 184, 187,
253. G. MINI, _Il Libro d' oro di Firenze Antica_ in _Giornale
Araldico-genealogico-diplomatico_ (1901), XXVIII, p. 156. And see for
the descendants of the family an interesting paper by ANSELMI, _Nuovi
documenti e nuove opere di frate Ambrogio della Robbia nelle Marche_
in _Arte e Storia_ (1904), XXIII, p. 154.
[7] He himself tells us this in _De Montibus, Sylvis, Lacubus_, etc.
[8] See the documents published by CRESCINI, _Contributo agli Studi
sul Boccaccio_ (Torino, 1887), esp. p. 258.
[9] See _Arch. di Stato Firenze, Mercanzia_, No. 137, _ad ann._, May
23.
[10] In the carteggio of the _Signoria Fiorentina_ (missive iv. f.
37 of _Arch. di Stato di Firenze_) is to be found the copy of a
letter from the Priori to King Robert, which has been published. The
Signoria on April 12, 1329, write to King Robert that the lack of
corn in the city is so great as to cause fear of tumult; wherefore
they pray him to order the captains of his ships to send certain
galleys they had taken with corn to Talamone, where they might buy
what they needed. Under this letter is written: "Ad infra scriptos
mercatores. Predicta notificata sunt Boccaccio de Certaldo, Baldo
Orlandini et Acciaiolo de Acciaiolis, et mandatum est et scriptum,
quod litteras predictas domino regi presententur." It follows that
Boccaccino was among the first Florentine _negozianti_ then in
Naples. But see _infra_. He must have come into personal relations
with King Robert on this occasion, even though hitherto he had not
done so.
[11] Cf. HAVEMANN, _Geschichte des ausgangs des Tempelherrenordens_
(Stuttgart, 1846), pp. 261-3, and CRESCINI, _Contributo agli studi
sul Boccaccio_ (Torino, 1887), cap. i. p. 25. Crescini's book is
invaluable.
[12] He tells us this in the _De Casibus Illustrium Virorum_, Lib. IX.
[13] See DESJARDINS, _Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec
la Toscane_, Vol. I, p. 12 _et seq._, and VILLARI, _The First Two
Centuries of Florentine History_ (Eng. trans., 1905), p. 554.
[14] That he was not a mere traveller between Tuscany and France
seems certain, for Boccaccio says: "Boccaccius genitor meus, qui tunc
forte Parisius negotiator, honesto cum labore rem curabat augere
domesticam," etc.
[15] BOCCACCIO, _De Cas. Ill. Vir._, Lib. IX. Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._
[16] Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._, cap. i; ANTONA TRAVERSI, _Della patria
di Gio. Boccaccio_ in _Fanfulla della Domenica_ (1880), II, and in
_Rivista Europea_ (1882), XXVI. See also B. ZUMBINI, _Il Filocolo del
Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1879), esp. p. 58; and CRESCINI, _Idalagos_ in
_Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil._ (1885-6), IX, 457-9, X, 1-21.
[17] Cf. _Ameto_ in _Opere Minori_ (Milan, 1879), p. 186 _et seq._;
and _Filocolo_ in _Opere Volgari_, ed. Moutier (Firenze, 1827), Vol.
II, p. 236 _et seq._
[18] For a full discussion of these allusions and anagrams, cf.
CRESCINI, _Contributo agli studi sul Boccaccio_ (Torino, 1887), cap,
i. It will be seen that if our theory be correct, Giovanni Boccaccio
bears the names of both his parents--Giovanna and Boccaccio. It is
necessary to point out, however, that there is not much in this,
for a paternal uncle was called Vanni, and Giovanni may have been
named after him, as his brother was named after another uncle. Cf.
BALDELLI, _Vita di Gio. Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1806), p. 274, note 1.
[19] In the _Filocolo_ (_ed. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 242-3) we read:
"Ma non lungo tempo quivi ricevuti noi dimorò, che abbandonata la
semplice giovane e l' armento tornò nei suoi campi, e quivi appresso
noi si tirò, e non guari lontano al suo natal sito la promessa fede
a Giannai ad un' altra, Garamita chiamata, ripromise e servò, di cui
nuova prole dopo piccolo spazio riceveo." Cf. BALDELLI, _Vita di Gio.
Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1806), p. 275.
[20] See F. VILLANI, _Le Vite d' uomini illustri Fiorentini_
(Firenze, 1826). F. Villani was a contemporary of Boccaccio, and
succeeded him in the chair founded at Florence for the exposition of
the _Divine Comedy_.
[21] See Galletti, _Philippi Villani: Liber de Civitatis Florentiæ
famosis civibus ex codice Mediceo Laurentiano, nunc primum editus_,
etc. (Firenze, 1847), and on this CALÒ, _Filippo Villani e il Liber
de Origine civitatis_, etc. (Rocca S. Casciano, 1904), pp. 154-5.
[22] The son of his "natural father" may mean that Boccaccio di
Chellino was not his adoptive father, or it may mean that Giovanni
was a bastard. See on this CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 38 _et seq._, and
DELLA TORRE, _La Giovinezza di Gio. Boccaccio_ (Città di Castello,
1905), cap. i.
[23] Domenico Bandini Aretino says: "Boccatius pater ejus ... amavit
quamdam iuventulam Parisinam, quam prout diligentes Ioannem dicunt
quamquam alia communior sit opinio sibi postea uxorem fecit, ex qua
genitus est Ioannes." See SOLERTI, _Le vite di Dante, Petrarca e
Boccaccio scritte fino al secolo XVII_ (Milano, 1904). The lives
of Boccaccio constitute the third part of the volume; the second
of these is Domenico's. Cf. MESSERA, _Le più antiche biografie del
Boccaccio_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil._ (1903), XXVII, fasc. iii.
See also CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 16, note 1, and ANTONA TRAVERSI,
_op. cit._ in _Fansulia della Domencia_, II, 23, where many authors
of this opinion are quoted.
[24] Giovanni Acquettino da Prato was a bad poet. His sonnet says:
"Nacqui in Firenze al Pozzo Toscanelli." Pozzo Toscanelli was in the
S. Felicità quarter, close to the Via Guicciardini.
[25] _St. della Lett. Ital._ (1823), V, part iii. p. 738 _et seq._
[26] _Op. cit._, pp. 277-80.
[27] CORAZZINI, _Lettere edite e inedite di G. Boccaccio_ (Firenze,
1877), p. viii. _et seq._
[28] KOERTING, _Boccaccio's Leben und Werke_ (Leipzig, 1880), p.
67 _et seq._, and _Boccaccio Analekten_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom.
Phil._ (1881), v. p. 209 _et seq._ If Antona Traversi has disposed of
Corazzini's assertions, Crescini seems certainly to have demolished
the arguments of Koerting.
[29] All the dates and facts so carefully established by Crescini
and Della Torre are really dependent on the date of Boccaccio's
birth, 1313, being the true one. This is the corner-stone of their
structure. But the story of his illegitimacy and foreign birth was
current long before this date was established. It was the commonly
received opinion. Why? Doubtless because Boccaccio himself had
practically stated so in the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_. That Filippo
Villani's Italian translator was dependent on these allegories for
his story seems to be proved (cf. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 30); so
probably was the general public. The question remains: Was Boccaccio
speaking the mere truth concerning himself in these allegories?
Filippo Villani himself, as we have seen, believed that he was born
at Certaldo; so did Domenico Aretino. For myself, I do not think that
enough has been allowed for the indirect influence of Fiammetta in
the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_. They were written for her--to express
his love for her. She was the illegitimate daughter of King Robert of
Naples by the wife of the nobleman Conte d'Aquino--a woman of French
extraction. It is strange, then, that Boccaccio's story of his birth
in the allegories should so closely resemble hers. She doubtless
thought herself a very great lady, and was probably prouder of her
royal blood than a legitimate princess would have been. But Boccaccio
was just the son of a small Florentine trader; and he was a Poet. To
proclaim himself--half secretly--illegitimate was a gain to him, a
gain in romance. How could a youthful poet, in love with a princess
too, announce himself as the son of a petty trader, a mere ordinary
bourgeois, to a lady so fine as the blonde Fiammetta? Of course he
could not absolutely deny that this was so, especially after his
father's visit (1327), and also we must remember that the Florentine
trader held, or is supposed to have held, quite a good social
position even in feudal Naples. Nevertheless his bourgeois birth did
not please the greatest story-teller of Europe. So he invented a
romantic birth--he too would be the result of a love-intrigue, even
as Fiammetta was. And because he loved her, and therefore wished to
be as close to her and as like her as possible, he too would have
a French mother. Suppose all this to be true, and that after all
Boccaccio is the son of Margherita, the wife of his father; that
he was born in wedlock in 1318; that he met Fiammetta not on March
30, 1331 (see Appendix I), but on March 30, 1336, and that he told
Petrarch he was born in 1313 because he knew his father was in Paris
at that date--this last with his usual realism to clinch the whole
story he had told Fiammetta.
[30] In 1318 Boccaccio di Chellino is spoken of as having been a
dweller in the quarter of S. Pier Maggiore for some four years. See
MANNI, _Istoria del Decameron_ (Firenze, 1742), p. 7, who gives the
document. This may mean little, however, for the residence may have
been purely formal, and have signified merely that a business was
carried on there in his name. But see CRESCINI, _op. cit._, pp. 40
and 41, Note 1, and DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 7-14.
[31] Cf. _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 242-3.
[32] DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 2.
[33] Moreover, as we shall see, the story of the "two bears" which
in his allegory followed his father and drove himself out of the
house--to Naples--seems to make it necessary that they should all
have been living together. See _infra_, p. 14.
[34] In the first page he says: "Vagabondo giovane i Fauni e le
Driadi abitatrici del luogo, solea visitare, et elli forse dagli
vicini monti avuta antica origine, quasi da carnalità costretto, di
ciò avendo memoria, con pietosi affetti gli onorava talvolta...."
[35] The document is given in full in Appendix II. The fact that the
parish of S. Pier Maggiore is mentioned proves that when Boccaccio
di Chellino was married, he was living therein, for the property was
part of the dowry of Margherita di Gian Donato his first wife.
[36] See my _Country Walks About Florence_ (Methuen, 1908), pp. 13-15
Casa di Boccaccio is within sight and almost within hail of Poggio
Gherardo, the supposed scene of the first two days of the _Decameron_.
[37] In the _De Genealogiis Deorum_, Lib. XV, cap. x., he says "Non
dum ad septimum annum deveneram ... vix prima literarum elementa
cognoveram...." At this time he was already composing verses, he says.
[38] Cf. MASSERA, _Le più antiche biografie_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom.
Phil._, XXVII, pp. 310-18. But see CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 48, note
3; and in reply DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 3, note 5.
[39] "Qui ... ferula ... ab incunabulis puellulos primum grammaticæ
gradum tentantes cogere consueverat," writes Boccaccio in the
letter to Iacobo Pizzinghe. See CORRAZINI, _Le Lett. ed. e ined.
di G. B._ (Firenze, 1877), p 196, and _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, I,
75-6. It was probably the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid that he read with
Mazzuoli, though in the _Filocolo_ he speaks of the _Ars Amandi_! The
_Metamorphoses_ were read for the sake of the mythology as well as
for the exercise in Latin. Cf. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 4.
[40] Cf. HECKER, _Boccaccio Funde_ (Braunschweig, 1902), p. 288, and
MASSERA, _op. cit._, p. 310.
[41] DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 5, 6.
[42] In the _Ameto_:--
"Lì non si ride mai se non di rado,
La casa oscura e muta, e molto trista
Me ritiene e riceve a mal mio grado;
Dove la cruda ed orribile vista
D' un vecchio freddo, ruvido ed avaro
Ogn' ora con affanno più m' attrista."
No doubt, after the gaiety of Naples and its court, the life with an
old and poor Florentine merchant seemed dull; and besides, Fiammetta
was far away.
[43] _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, Vol. II, p. 243. He says: "Io semplice
e lascivo" (cf. _Paradiso_, v. 82-4) "come già dissi, le pedate
dello ingannator padre seguendo, volendo un giorno nella paternale
casa entrare, due orsi ferocissimi e terribili mi vidi avanti con
gli occhi ardenti desiderosi della mia morte, de' quali dubitando
io volsi i passi miei, e da quell' ora innanzi sempre d' entrare in
quella dubitai. Ma acciocchè io più vero dica, tanta fu la paura, che
abbandonati i paternali campi, in questi boschi venni l' apparato
uficio a operare." CRESCINI in _Kritischer Jahresbericht über
Fortschrifte der Rom. Phil._ (1898), III, p. 396 _et seq._, takes
these two bears to be old Boccaccio and Margherita, but DELLA TORRE,
_op. cit._, pp. 18-30, asks very aptly how could Boccaccio speak
thus of a father he allows in the _Fiammetta_ "per la mia puerizia
nel suo grembo teneramente allevata, per l' amor da lui verso di
me continuamente portato." Della Torre takes the two bears to be
Margherita and her son Francesco, born _ca._ 1321. See _op. cit._, p.
24, and document there quoted.
[44] See Appendix I, where the whole question is discussed. Cf. DELLA
TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 30, note 1, and caps. ii. and iii.; CASETTI,
_Il Boccaccio a Napoli_ in _Nuova Antologia_ (1875); and DE BLASIIS,
_La Dimora di Gio. Boccaccio a Napoli_ in _Arch. St. per le prov.
Nap._ (1892), XXII, p. 11 _et seq._