1323-1330
HIS ARRIVAL IN NAPLES--HIS YEARS WITH THE MERCHANT--HIS ABANDONMENT
OF TRADE AND ENTRY ON THE STUDY OF CANON LAW
In the fourteenth century the journey from Florence by way of Siena,
Perugia, Rieti, Aquila, and Sulmona, thence across the Apennines at
Il Sangro, and so through Isernia and Venafro, through Teano and
Capua to Naples, occupied some ten or eleven days.[45] The way was
difficult and tiring, especially for a lad of ten years old, and it
seems as though Giovanni was altogether tired out, for, if we may
believe the _Ameto_,[46] as he drew near the city at last he fell
asleep on his horse. And as he slept, a dream came to him. Full
of fear as he was, lonely and bewildered, those "two bears" still
pursuing him, doubtless, in his heart, suddenly it seemed to him
that he was already arrived in the city. "The new streets," he says
in the _Ameto_,[47] "held my heart with delight, and as I passed on
my way there appeared to the eyes of my mind a most beautiful girl,
in aspect gracious and fair, dressed all in garments of green, which
befitted her age and recalled the ancient dress of the city; and with
joy she gave me welcome, first taking me by the hand, and she kissed
me and I her; and then she said sweetly, 'Come where you shall find
good luck and happiness.'"[48] It was thus Giovanni was welcomed into
Naples with a kiss.
Naples was then at the height of its splendour, under Robert the
Wise, King of Jerusalem and the Two Sicilies, Count of Provence.
If his titles had little reality, for that of Jerusalem merely
commemorated an episode of history, and Sicily itself had passed
into the hands of Aragon, as King of Naples and Count of Provence he
possessed an exceptional influence in the affairs of Europe, while
in Italy he was in some sort at the head of the triumphant Guelf
cause. The son of Charles I of Anjou, King of Naples, Duke Robert,
had seized the crown of Italy and Apulia, not without suspicion of
fratricide; for the tale goes that none knew better than he the cause
of the sudden illness which carried off his elder brother, Dante's
beloved Charles Martel. However that may be, in June, 1309, Duke
Robert went by sea from Naples to Provence to the Papal Court there,
"with a great fleet of galleys," Villani[49] tells us, "and a great
company, and was crowned King of Sicily and of Apulia by Pope Clement
on S. Mary's Day in September." A year later we find him in Florence
on his way back from Avignon. He stayed in the house of the Peruzzi
dal Parlagio, and Villani[50] says: "The Florentines did him much
honour and held jousts and gave him large presents of money, and he
abode in Florence until the 24th day of October to reconcile the
Guelfs together ... and to treat of warding off the Emperor." He was,
in fact, the great opponent, as we have seen, of Henry VII, and in
1312 Villani[51] records that he sent 600 Catalan and Apulian horse
to Rome to defend the City, while the people of Florence, Lucca, and
Siena, and of other cities of Tuscany who were in league with him,
sent help also; yet though they held half Rome between them, Henry
was crowned in the Lateran after all. It was in the very year of the
Emperor's death that the Florentines gave him the lordship of their
city, as did the Lucchese, the Pistoians, and the men of Prato.[52]
Later, after much fighting, the Genoese did the same; so that in the
year 1323 King Robert was in some sort drawing tribute from more than
half the Communes of Central Italy. The brilliancy of his statecraft,
or even, perhaps, of his statesmanship, added to the splendour of
Naples, whither his magnanimity and the brilliance of his court
attracted some of the greatest men of the time.[53]
"Cernite Robertum
Regem virtute refertum"
wrote Petrarch of him later--"full of virtue." While in a letter
written in 1340 to Cardinal Colonna he says that of all men he would
most readily have accepted King Robert as a judge of his ability.
Nor were they poets and men of learning alone whom he gathered about
him. In 1330 Giotto, who had known Charles of Calabria in Florence in
1328,[54] came to Naples on his invitation; while so early as 1310,
certainly, Simone Martini was known to him, and seems about that time
to have painted his portrait, later representing him in S. Chiara as
crowned by his brother S. Louis of Toulouse.[55] It was then into a
city where learning and the arts were the fashion that Boccaccio came
in 1323.
There were other things too: the amenity of one's days passed so
much in the open air, the splendour of a city rich and secure, the
capital of a kingdom, and the residence of a king--the only king in
Italy--above all, perhaps, the gaiety of that southern life in the
brilliant sunshine. Boccaccio never tires of telling us about this
city of his youth. "Naples," he says in the _Fiammetta_, "was gay,
peaceful, rich, and splendid above any other Italian city, full of
festas, games, and shows." "One only thought, how to occupy oneself,"
he says again, "how to amuse oneself, dancing to the sound of music,
discussing affairs of love, and losing one's heart over sweet words,
and Venus there was indeed a goddess, so that more than one who came
thither a Lucrece returned a Cleopatra. Sometimes," he continues,
"the youths and maidens went in the gayest companies into the woods,
where tables were prepared for them on which were set out all manner
of delicate meats; and the picnic over, they would set themselves
to dance and to romp and play. Some would glide in boats along the
shore, others, dispensing with shoes and stockings, and lifting high
their petticoats, would venture among the rocks or into the water
to find sea shells; others again would fish with lines." And then
there were the Courts of Love held in the spring, when the girls,
adorned with splendid jewels, he tells us in the _Filocolo_, tried to
outshine one another, and while the old people looked on, the young
men danced with them, touching their delicate hands. And seeing that
he was surrounded by a life like this, is it any wonder that he fell
in love with love, with beauty?
[Illustration: KING ROBERT OF NAPLES CROWNED BY S. LOUIS OF TOULOUSE
_From the fresco by Simone Martini in S. Lorenzo, Naples._
_Anderson._]
Of the first years of his sojourn in that beautiful southern place we
have only the vaguest hints.[56] In the _De Genealogiis_[57] he says
that "for six years he did nothing but waste irrecoverable time" with
the merchant to whom his father had confided him. He always hated
business, and precocious as he was in his love for literature, in
the gaiety and beauty of Naples he grew to despise those engaged in
money-making; for, as he says in the _Corbaccio_, they knew nothing
of any beautiful thing, but only how to fill their pockets.[58]
Indeed Boccaccio might seem to have had no taste or even capacity
for anything but study and the art of literature. He most bitterly
reproaches his father in the _De Genealogiis_[59] for having turned
him for so many years from his vocation. "If my father had dealt
wisely with me I might have been among the great poets," he writes.
"But he forced me, in vain, to give my mind to money-making, and
to such a paying thing as the Canon Law. I became neither a man
of affairs nor a canonist, and I lost all chance of succeeding in
poetry."
Those six irrecoverable years had indeed almost passed away before
even in Naples he was able to find, unlearned as he was, "rozza
mente" as he calls himself, any opportunity of culture. It was in
1328,[60] it seems, that those _conversazioni astronomiche_ began
with Calmeta, which aroused in him the desire of wisdom.[61] By that
time his father was in Naples, having come thither in the autumn of
1327, and it may have been in his company that Giovanni first met
this the earliest friend of his youth. But who was this Calmeta,
this benefactor to whom, after all, we owe so much? Andalò di Negro,
says Crescini;[62] but as Della Torre reminds us, his work was done
in Latin, and Giovanni knew but little of the tongue. It will be
seen in the _Filocolo_, to which we must turn again for guidance,
that Calmeta and Idalagos have the same profession; they are both
shepherds, and it is in their leisure that Calmeta teaches Idalagos
astronomy. It seems then that Calmeta was also in business in Naples.
That such an one there was Della Torre proves by drawing attention to
a letter he will not allow to be apocryphal.[63] Calmeta, then, as we
see, like Giovanni, was inclined to study, and more fortunate than
he, had been able "tuam puerilem ætatem coram educatoribus roborare,
et vago atque interno intuiti elementa grammaticæ ruminare...." that
is to say, to finish his elementary course of study, which consisted
of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.
But this new friendship was not the only thing that about this
time helped to strengthen Giovanni's dislike of business and to
encourage him in his love of learning and literature. For in the
same year, 1328, it seems likely that he was presented at the court
of King Robert,[64] a court, as we have already said, full of gay,
delightful people and learned men.[65] It seems certain too that he
was presented by his father who, as we have seen, between September
and November, 1327, came to Naples as a member of the Società de'
Bardi.[66] Now old Boccaccio not only went frequently to court during
his sojourn in Naples, for he was very honourably received there, but
was probably one of the most considerable Florentine merchants in the
city,[67] and then he had known Carlo, Duke of Calabria, in Florence,
before setting out.[68] There can therefore be very little doubt as
to where Giovanni got his introduction.
Before his father left Naples, Giovanni, who was then about sixteen
years of age, had had the courage to tell him that he could not
pursue a business career.[69] His father seems at last to have been
convinced of this, and gave his consent for study in the Arts, but,
practical man as he was, he believed in a fixed profession, and
therefore set Giovanni in 1329[70] to study Canon Law, which might
well bring him a career. So his father left him.
Whatever his duties had been or were to be, neither they nor his
studies with his friend the young merchant occupied all his time.
He enjoyed life, entering with gusto into the gaiety of what was
certainly the gayest city in Italy then and later. He speaks often
of the beauty of the women[71] amid that splendour of earth and
sky and sea; and the beautiful names of two he courted and loved,
being in love with love, have come down to us, to wit Pampinea, that
white dove "bianca columba," and Abrotonia, the "nera merla" of the
_Filocolo_.[72] Like Romeo, Boccaccio had his Rosaline. These were
not profound passions, of course, but the sentimental or sensual
ardours of youth that were nevertheless an introduction to love
himself.[73] They soon passed away, though not without a momentary
chagrin, for if he betrayed the first, the second seems to have
forsaken him. After that disillusion he tells us he retired into
his room, and there, tired as he was, fell asleep half in tears.
And again, as once before, a vision came to him. He seemed to be
sitting, where indeed he was, all sorrowful, when suddenly Abrotonia
and Pampinea appeared to him. For some time they watched him weeping,
and then began to make fun of his tears. He prayed them to leave him
alone since they were the first and only cause of his grief, but the
two damsels redoubled their laughter, so that at last he turned to
them and said: "Begone, begone! Is your laughter then the price of my
verses in your honour and of all my trouble?"[74] But they answered
that it was for another that he had really sung. Then he awoke; it
was still night, and, tearful as he was, he rose to light the lamp,
and sat thus thinking for a time. But weary at last he returned to
bed, and presently falling asleep he dreamed again. Once more the two
girls stood before him, but with them was another, fairer far, all
dressed in green. Her they presented to him, saying that it was she
who would be the real "tyrant of his heart." Then he looked at her,
and behold, she was the same lady he had seen in the first vision
when, weary with the long roads, he first drew near to Naples; the
very lady indeed who bade him welcome and kissed him, and whom he
kissed again. So the dream ended.
What are we to think of these visions? Did they really happen, or
are they merely an artistic method of stating certain facts--among
the rest that Fiammetta was about to renew his life? But we have
gone too far to turn back now; we have already relied so much on the
allegories of the _Ameto_, the _Filocolo_, and the _Fiammetta_, that
we dare not at this point question them too curiously. The visions
are all probably true in substance if not in detail. We must accept
them, though not necessarily the explanations that have been offered
of them.[75]
[Illustration: POPE JOAN
_A woodcut from the "De Claris Mulieribus." (Berne, 1539.) (By the
courtesy of Messrs. J. & J. Leighton.)_]
All this probably happened at the end of 1329, and Fiammetta was
still more than a year away. By this time, however, Boccaccio
was already studying Canon Law. Who was his master? He does not
himself tell us. All he says is in the _De Genealogiis_,[76] and
many reading that passage have at once thought of Cino da Pistoja,
chiefly perhaps because it is so delightful to link together two
famous men.[77] But while it is true that Cino was a doctor of Law
in Naples in 1330,[78] we know that Boccaccio studied Canon Law, and
that Cino was a Doctor of Civil Law and a very bitter enemy of the
_Canonisti_.[79] It seems indeed impossible to name his master.[80]
Whoever he may have been, the study of Canon Law which presently
became so repugnant to Giovanni must have been at first, at any rate,
much more delightful than business. It probably gave him more liberty
for reading and for pleasure. He had, of course, begun to study Latin
again, and no doubt he read Ovid, whom he so especially loved--
"Lo quale poetando
Iscrisse tanti versi per amore
Come acquistar si potesse mostrando."[81]
No doubt, too, he read the _Ars Amandi_, "in which," he says in the
_Filocolo_, "the greatest of poets shows how the sacred fire of Venus
may be made to burn with care even in the coldest," and knew it all
by heart.
We may believe too that he read the _Heroides_, which he imitated
later in the letters of Florio to Biancofiore and of Biancofiore to
Florio; and the _Metamorphoses_, which indeed we find on every page
of the _Filocolo_.[82]
Delia Torre thinks[83] that although Cino da Pistoja was not his
master, he certainly met him during his stay in Naples between
October, 1330, and July, 1331,[84] and it was possibly through him
that Boccaccio first read Dante. At any rate, he read him, and
shortly after he imitates and speaks of him.[85] He also studied at
this time under Andalò di Negro,[86] the celebrated astrologer,
one of the most learned men of his time, and we shall see to what
use he put the knowledge he acquired; but who was it who introduced
to him the French Romances? Perhaps it was one of the many friends
he doubtless had among the rich Florentine merchants and their sons
then in Naples;[87] but indeed he could hardly have failed to meet
with them in that Angevin Court. That he knew the romance of King
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table we know,[88] but he knew
even better the legends of the Romans and the Trojans, which he told
Fiammetta, who now comes into his life never really to leave him
again.
FOOTNOTES:
[45] It seems strange that Boccaccio did not follow the Via
Francigena for Rome, as Henry VII and all the emperors did, till we
remember that the Pope was in Avignon and the City a nest of robbers.
The route given above is, according to De Blasiis, the one he took,
though of course there is no certainty about it. Cf. DE BLASIIS, _op.
cit._, pp. 513-14.
There is also this to be considered that, according to Della Torre's
theory, which we accept, Boccaccio's journey took place in December,
1323. But Mr. Heywood informs me that at that date the country about
Perugia was in a state of war. Spoleto was then being besieged by the
Perugians, and the Aretine Bishop was perpetually organising raids
and incursions for her relief. In the autumn Città di Castello had
revolted and given herself to the Tarlati, and even if (owing to
the season of the year and the consequent scarcity of grass for the
horses of the _milites_) military operations were impossible on a
large scale in the open country, the whole _contado_ must still have
been full of marauding bands. This route then via Perugia would have
been dangerous if not impossible. The explanation may be that the
Florentines and Sienese were allied with the Perugians. Certainly in
the spring of 1324 there were Florentine troops in the Perugian camp
before Spoleto. Perhaps the boy found protection by travelling with
some of his military compatriots. In 1327 (see _infra_) the route
suggested by DE BLASIIS and accepted by DELLA TORRE would have been
reasonable enough.
[46] _Ameto_ (_Opere Minori_, Milano, 1879), p. 225.
[47] My translation is free; I give therefore the original: "... le
mai non vedute rughe con diletto teneano l' anima mia, per la quale
così andando, agli occhi della mente si parò innanzi una giovane
bellissima in aspetto, graziosa e leggiadra, e di verdi vestimenti
vestita ornata secondo che la sua età e l' antico costume della città
richiedono; e con liete accoglienze, me prima per la mano preso, mi
baciò, ed io lei; dopo questo aggiugnendo con voce piacevole, vieni
dove la cagione de' tuoi beni vedrai."
[48] One may contrast this vision of welcome with that which had
driven him away. Of such is the symmetry of Latin work. He himself
calls this a prevision of Fiammetta. We cannot help reminding
ourselves that the _Vita Nuova_ was already known to him when he
wrote thus.
[49] G. VILLANI, _Cronica_, Lib. VIII, cap. 112.
[50] _Ibid._, Lib. IX, cap. 8.
[51] _Ibid._, Lib. IX, cap. 39.
[52] _Ibid._, Lib. IX, cap. 56.
[53] Cf. DE BLASIIS, _op. cit._
[54] See CROWE and CAVALCASELLE, ed. E. Hutton (Dent, 1908), Vol. I,
p. 26.
[55] The picture, of life size, is still at Naples in S. Lorenzo
Maggiore. SCHULZ, _Denkmäler der Kunst des Mittelalters in
Unteritalien_, Vol. III, p. 165, publishes a document dated 13 July,
1317, by which King Robert grants Simone Martini a pension of twenty
gold florins.
[56] It is perhaps not altogether unlikely that for a boy the port
and Dogana would have extraordinary attractions. At any rate,
Boccaccio in the tenth novel of the eighth day of the _Decameron_
describes the ways of "maritime countries that have ports," how that
"all merchants arriving there with merchandise would on discharging
bring all their goods into a warehouse, called in many places
'Dogana'...."
[57] Lib. XV, 10: "Sex annis nil aliud feci quam non recuperabile
tempus in vacuum terere." Note these six years, they will be valuable
to us when we come to decide as to the year in which he first met
Fiammetta, and thus to fix the date of his advent to Naples. See
Appendix I.
[58] "Laddove essi del tutto ignoranti, niuna cosa più oltre sanno,
che quanti passi ha dal fondaco, o dalla bottega alla lor casa; e
par loro ogni uomo, che di ciò egli volesse sgannare, aver vinto
e confuso quando dicono: all' uscio mi si pare, quasi in niun'
altra cosa stia il sapere, se non o in ingannare o in guadagnare."
_Corbaccio_ in _Opere Minori_ (Milano, 1879), p. 277. Cf. _Egloga_
xiii., where the same sentiments are expressed.
[59] Lib. XV, cap. x.
[60] Cf. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 109-11.
[61] Cf. _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, Lib. IV, p. 244 _et seq._
[62] CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 47.
[63] This letter is printed in CORAZZINI, _Le Lett. edite e ined._
(Firenze, 1877), p. 457. "Te igitur carissime," writes Boccaccio,
"tam delectabilia tam animum attrahentia agentem cognovi, si recolis,
et tui gratia tantæ dulcedinis effectus sum particeps tuus, insimul
et amicus, in tam alto mysterio, in tam delectabili et sacro studio
Providentia summa nos junxit, quos æqualis animi vinctos tenuit,
retinet et tenebit...." This is the letter beginning "Sacræ famis et
angelicæ viro," which we shall allude to again.
[64] Cf. DE BLASIIS, _De Casibus_, _u.s._, IX, 26, and DELLA TORRE,
_op. cit._, p. 112.
[65] Cf. FARAGLIA, _Barbato di Sulmona e gli uomini di lettere della
Corte di Roberto d' Angiò_ in _Arch. St. Ital._, Ser. V, Vol. III
(1889), p. 343 _et seq._
[66] We fix the approximate date of Boccaccio's presentation at court
by his own words in the _De Casibus Illustrium Virorum_, Lib. IX,
cap. 26: "Me _adhuc adulescentulo_ versanteque Roberti Hierosolymorum
et Sicilicæ Regis in aula...." As we have seen, adolescence began,
according to the reckoning then, at fourteen years. To strengthen
this supposition, we know that Boccaccino was in Naples at that time,
and in relations with King Robert. See Appendix I.
[67] See _supra_ p. 5, n. 1.
[68] Cf. DE BLASIIS, _op. cit._, p. 506, note 1. DAVIDSOHN,
_Forschungen zur Geschichte von Florenz_ (Berlin, 1901), III, p.
182, note 911. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 117-18. "Boccaccius
de Certaldo de Societate Bardorum de Florencia, consiliarius,
cambellanus, mercator, familiaris et fidelis noster," wrote the king
of him. Cf. DAVIDSOHN, _op. cit._, III, p. 187, note 942; and IBID.,
_Il padre di Gio. Boccaccio_ in _Arch. St. It._, Ser. V, Vol. XXIII,
p. 144.
[69] Cf. _De Genealogiis_, XV, 10; "Quoniam visum est, aliquibus
ostendentibus inditiis, me aptiorem literarum studiis, issuit ... ut
pontificum sanctiones dives exinde futurus, auditurus intrarem."
[70] See _supra_, p. 19, n. 2, where, as we find in the _De
Genealogiis_, he says that for six years he did nothing but waste
irrecoverable time. Thus if he came to Naples in 1323 it was in 1329
that he began to study Law. The last we hear of his father in Naples
is in 1329.
[71] "E come gli altri giovani le chiare bellezze delle donne di
questa terra andavano riguardando, ed io" (_Ameto_, _ed. cit._, p.
225). In the _Filocolo_ (_ed. cit._, Lib. IV, p. 246) he tells us
that this was especially true in the spring.
[72] CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 50. Whether Abrotonia and Pampinea
were the earliest of his loves seems doubtful. Cf. RENIER, _La Vita
Nuova e Fiammetta_, p. 225 _et seq._ Who was the Lia of the _Ameto_,
and when did he meet her? Cf. ANTONIA TRAVERSI, _La Lia dell' Ameto_
in _Giornale di Filologia romanza_, n. 9, p. 130 _et seq._, and
CRESCINI, _Due Studi riguardanti opere minori del B._ (Padova, 1882).
Was she the same person as the Lucia of the _Amorosa Visione_? Or is
the Lucia of the _Amorosa Visione_ not a person at all? See CRESCINI,
_lucia non Lucia_ in _Giorn. St. della Lett. It._, III, fasc. 9, pp.
422-3. These are questions too difficult for a mere Englishman. An
excellent paper on Boccaccio's loves is that by ANTONA TRAVERSI, _Le
prime amanti di G. B._ in _Fanfulla della Domenica_, IV, 19.
[73] Della Torre finds these love affairs to have befallen 1329.
I have, as in almost all concerning the youth of Boccaccio, found
myself in agreement with him. But cf. HAUVETTE, _Une confession de
Boccace--Il Corbaccio_ in _Bull. Ital._, I, p. 5 _et seq._
[74] "O giovani schernitrici de' danni dati e di chi con sommo studio
per addietro v' ha onorate; levatevi di qui, questa noia non si
conviene a me per premio de' cantati versi in vostra laude, e delle
avute fatiche."
[75] Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 108, note 1.
[76] Lib. XV, cap. x.: "... jussit genitor idem, ut pontificum
sanctiones dives exinde futurus, auditurus intrarem et sub preceptore
clarissimo fere tantumdem temporis in cassum etiam laboravi."
[77] A letter forged probably by Doni, who posed as its discoverer,
would have confirmed this. The letter ran: "Di Pisa alli xix
di aprile, 1338--Giovanni di Boccaccio da Certaldo discepolo e
ubbidientissimo figliulo infinitamente vi si raccomanda." As is well
known, Cino da Pistoja died at the end of 1336 or beginning of 1337.
[78] Cf. H. COCHIN, _Boccaccio_ (Sansoni, Firenze, 1901), trad. di
Vitaliani.
[79] DE BLASIIS, _Cino da Pistoia nella Università di Napoli_ in
_Arch. St. per le prov. Nap._, Ann. XI (1886), p. 149. Again, the
course seems to have been for six years under the same master, and
although Cino was called to Naples in August, 1330, he was in Perugia
in 1332. Cf. DE BLASIIS, _op. cit._, p. 149.
[80] BALDELLI, _Vita_, p. 6, note 1, thinks this master was Dionisio
Roberti da Borgo Sansepolcro. He adds that this man was in Paris in
1329, and that Boccaccio _there in that year_ began work under him.
In defence of this theory he cites a letter from Boccaccio himself
to Niccola Acciaiuoli of 28th August, 1341, in which he says: "Nè
è nuova questa speranza, ma antica; perocchè altra non mi rimase,
poichè il reverendo mio padre e signore, maestro Dionigi, forse per
lo migliore, da Dio mi fu tolto." (Cf. CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p.
18.) We may dismiss Baldelli's argument, for we have decided that
Boccaccio was in Naples in 1329, when he began the study of Canon
Law. But the conjecture itself gains a certain new strength from
the fact that Roberti was a professor in Naples. (See RENIER, _La
Vita Nuova e La Fiammetta_, Torino, 1879. Cf. GIGLI, _I sonetti
Baiani del Boccaccio_ in _Giornale St. della Lett. Ital._, XLIII
(1904), p. 299 _et seq._) In 1328, however, he proves to have been
in Paris, and in fact he did not arrive in Naples till 1338. As I
have said, the course lasted six years, and even though we concede
that Boccaccio began his studies under Roberti in 1338, we know
that three years later, in 1341, Roberti died (DELLA TORRE, _op.
cit._, p. 146). Besides, in 1341 Boccaccio had returned to Florence.
Roberti seems, indeed, to have been the protector rather than the
master of Boccaccio, even as Acciaiuoli was, and it is for this
reason that Boccaccio alludes to him in writing to Acciaiuoli in
1341 when Roberti was dead. The doctors in Naples in 1329 are named
by DE BLASIIS, _op. cit._, p. 149. Among them were Giovanni di
Torre, Lorenzo di Ravello, Giovanni di Lando, Niccola Rufolo, Biagio
Paccone, Gio. Grillo, Niccola Alunno.
[81] _Amorosa Visione_, v. 171-3.
[82] Cf. HORTIS, _Studi sulle Opere Latine di Gio. Boccaccio_, etc.
(Trieste, 1879), p. 399.
[83] DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 151. But the strongest proof that
Boccaccio and Cino were friends is furnished by VOLPI, _Una Canzone
di Cino da Pistoia nel "Filostrato" del Boccaccio_ in _Bull. St.
Pistoiese_ (1899), Vol. I, fasc. 3, p. 116 _et seq._, who finds a
song of Cino's in the _Filostrato_. It seems probable, then, since
they were in personal relations, that Cino introduced the works of
Dante to Boccaccio.
[84] DE BLASIIS, _op. cit._, p. 139 _et seq._
[85] In the _Filocolo_ (_ed. cit._), II, 377, begun according to our
theory in 1331. I quote the following: "Nè ti sia cura di volere
essere dove i misurati versi del Fiorentino Dante si cantino, il
quale tu, siccome piccolo servidore, molto dei reverente seguire."
Cf. DOBELLI, _Il culto del Boccaccio per Dante_ in _Giornale
Dantesca_ (1898), V, p. 207 _et seq._ See too the quotations from
Dante, for they are really just that in the _Filostrato_, part ii.
strofa 50, _et passim_, and see _infra_, pp. 77, n. 2, and 253, n. 5.
[86] Cf. BERTOLOTTO, _Il Trattato dell' Astrolabio di A. di N._ in
_Atti della Soc. Liguria di St. Pat._ (1892), Vol. XXV, p. 55 _et
seq_. Also the _De Genealogiis_, XV, 6, and HORTIS, _Studi_, p.
158 and notes 1-3. Andalò di Negro was born in 1260, it seems, at
Genoa. In 1314 he was chosen by the Signoria of Genoa as ambassador
to Alessio Comneno of Trebizond, and he carried out his mission
excellently. He had already travelled much, and after his embassy
seems to have gone to Cyprus (_Genealogiis, u.s._). He passed his
last years at the court of King Robert in Naples, who appointed him
astrologer and physician to the court. His pay was six ounces of gold
annually (BERTOLOTTO, _u.s._). He died in the early summer of 1334.
He was a learned astronomer and astrologer, and probably one of the
most remarkable men of his time.
[87] Cf. DE. BLASIIS, _op. cit._, p. 494.
[88] Cf. _Amorosa Visione_, cap. xxix.