1346-1350
IN ROMAGNA--THE PLAGUE--THE DEATH OF FIAMMETTA
The few notices we have of Boccaccio's life at this time are almost
entirely mere hints which enable us to assert that in such a year he
was in such a place: they in no way help us to discover why he was
there or what he was doing. Thus we are able to affirm that probably
between 1344 and 1346, certainly in 1345, he was in Naples, but why
he went there, unless it were for the sake of Fiammetta, we cannot
suggest, for if Florence was a shambles, so was Naples. In much the
same way we know that he was in Ravenna with Ostasio da Polenta
not later than 1346; for in a letter Petrarch wrote him in 1365 he
reminds him that he was in Ravenna "in the time of the grandfather
of him who now rules there."[334] But why Boccaccio went to Ravenna,
unless it were that, finding Naples too hot to hold him and Florence
impossible, he took refuge with some relations he had there, or with
the Polenta who had befriended Dante, we do not know. Nor do we know
what he did there. It may be that during his stay in Naples he had
already begun to think of writing a life of Dante; and hearing that
the great poet had left a daughter Beatrice in Ravenna he set out to
see her. This, however, is but the merest conjecture. Baldelli,[335]
indeed, thinks that Boccaccio was at this time in Romagna as
ambassador for Florence. For Ravenna was not the only place he
visited about this time. If we may believe the third _Eclogue_, he
was also the guest of Francesco degli Ordelaffi, the great enemy of
the Church in Romagna and of King Robert the Wise.[336]
In the third _Eclogue_ Palemone reproves Pamfilo for idly reposing in
his cave while all around the woods ring with the cries of Testili
infuriated against Fauno. Now Fauno, as Boccaccio tells us in his
letter to Frate Martino da Signa,[337] where he explains some of
the disguises of the _Eclogues_, is Francesco degli Ordelaffi,
and Testili, although Boccaccio does not say so, is without doubt
the Church, which had in fact no greater enemy in all Romagna than
Ordelaffo, the usurper, if you will, of the ecclesiastical dominion,
who held in contempt the many excommunications launched against him,
replying always by an attack on some bishop, and by making continual
war on the legates sent against him.[338]
Those cries, and the anger which causes them, fill the first part
of the _Eclogue_. In the second part, it is clearly recounted how
King Louis of Hungary came down into Italy to avenge the murder of
his brother Andrew. Argo, the head shepherd worthy to be praised by
all, has perforce abandoned the sheep.[339] Argo is Robert King of
Naples,[340] wise as King Solomon, who follows the Muses. Alexis is
Andrew of Hungary and Naples, who, made free of the woods by Argo,
being careless and without caution, has been assailed by a she-wolf,
pregnant and enraged, that is by Queen Giovanna; for here, at any
rate, Boccaccio eagerly sides with the rabble and accepts the guilt
of the Queen as fact. They say, he adds, that the woods held many
cruel wild beasts and lions, and that Alexis met the death of Adonis.
Now Tityrus, that is King Louis of Hungary, the brother of the dead
Alexis, heard of this beyond Ister or the Danube, and set forth with
innumerable hunters to punish the wolf and the lions.[341] And many
Italians joined with Tityrus, says Boccaccio; among them was Faunus,
although Testili threatened him and cursed him sore.[342]
What this means is obvious. The Pope, dismayed by the descent of King
Louis into Italy,[343] having tried unsuccessfully in a thousand ways
to turn him from his purpose, hindered him as best he could when
he had once set out. The Vicar in Romagna, Astorgio di Duraforte,
was ordered not to allow him to enter any city; a papal legate met
him at Foligno, forbidding him on pain of excommunication to enter
the Kingdom. In spite of the papal prohibition the _signorotti_ of
Romagna gladly entertained the king. Francesco Ordelaffi above all,
as Villani tells us,[344] "bade him welcome, and went out to meet him
in the _contado_ of Bologna with two hundred horse and a thousand
foot, all under arms. On December 13 he received him in Forlì with
the greatest honour, furnishing his needs and those of all his
people. And there they sojourned three days with much feasting and
dancing of men and women, and the king made knights of the lord of
Forlì and of his two sons."
This, however, did not content Ordelaffo, for with three hundred of
his best horse he followed King Louis to help him in his undertaking
on December 17, 1347.[345] Now Ordelaffo was not only a lover of
the chase and of war, but in his way a humanist also, who, like
Sigismondo Malatesta later, surrounded himself with poets and men
of letters. Among his friends and counsellors was that Cecco da
Meleto who was the friend of Petrarch and Boccaccio.[346] He was a
great admirer of Petrarch, and merited the title Boccaccio gave him
in that letter to Zanobi: _Pieridum hospes gratissimus_. If that
letter is authentic,[347] then Boccaccio not only met King Louis
of Hungary[348] at Forlì, but accompanied him and Francesco degli
Ordelaffi into the Kingdom in the end of the year 1347 and the
beginning of 1348.[349] His sentiments with regard to the murder and
the war which followed it are clearly expressed there. He speaks
of the King's arms as "_arma justissima_," and though it surprises
us to find Boccaccio on that side, the letter only states clearly
the sentiments already set down in allegory in the third and eighth
_Eclogues_, and clearly but more discreetly stated in the _De
Casibus Virorum_. In the fourth _Eclogue_, however, he commiserates
the unhappy fate of Louis of Taranto, and hymns his return. Can
it be that, at first persuaded of the Queen's guilt, he learned
better later? We do not know. The whole affair of the murder, as of
Boccaccio's actions at this time and of his sentiments with regard to
it, are mysterious. If in the third and eighth _Eclogues_ he tells
us that Giovanna and Louis of Taranto were the real murderers of
Andrew and wishes success to the arms of the avenger; in the fourth,
fifth, and sixth _Eclogues_ he sympathises with Louis and tells of
the misery of the Kingdom after the descent of the Hungarians, and at
last joyfully celebrates the return of Giovanna and her husband.[350]
And this contradiction is emphasised by his actions. So far as we
may follow him at all in these years, we see him in Naples horrified
and disgusted at the state of affairs, leaving the city after the
torture and death of the Catanesi and repairing to the courts of
the Polenta and of the Ordelaffi, the enemies of the Church which
held Giovanna innocent, and of the champions of the Church, Robert
and Naples. Nor does he stop there, but apparently follows Ordelaffo
in his descent with King Louis on Naples in the end of 1347 and the
beginning of 1348. Yet in 1350 he was in Naples, and in 1352 he
was celebrating the return of those against whom he had sided and
written. The contradiction is evident, and we cannot explain it; but
in a manner it gives us the reason why, when Frate Martino da Segna
asked for an explanation and key to the _Eclogues_, he supplied him
with one so meagre and imperfect.[351]
[Illustration: MADONNA FRANCESCA AND HER LOVERS. (DEC. IX, I)
_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.)_]
King Louis of Hungary, as we know, had not been many months in the
Kingdom when he was forced to fly for his life, not by a mortal foe,
but by the plague--the Black Death of 1348. It was brought to Italy
by two Genoese galleys which had been trading in the East and had
touched at Pisa. In April it had spread to Florence, a month later
to Siena, before Midsummer all Italy was in its grip, and by the
following year the greater part of Europe. No chronicler of the time
in Italy but has more than enough to say of this "judgment of God";
and beside the wonderful description by Boccaccio in the introduction
to the _Decameron_, there is scarcely a novelist who does not recount
some tale or other concerning it.[352]
Perhaps Tuscany suffered most severely. "In our city of Florence,"
writes Matteo Villani,[353] for old Giovanni Villani perished in the
pestilence--"in our city of Florence the plague became general in the
beginning of April of the year 1348, and lasted till the beginning
of September. And there died in the city, the _contado_, and the
district, of both sexes and of all ages, three out of every five
persons and more, for the poor suffered most, since it began with
them who were utterly without aid, and more disposed by weakness to
be attacked." Already Giovanni Villani had noted that in 1347 "there
began in Florence and in the _contado_ a sort of sickness which
always follows famine and hunger, and this especially fell on women
and children among the poor."[354] Giovanni Morelli[355] tells us
that in Florence it was a common thing to see people laughing and
talking together, and then in the same hour to see them dead. People
fell down dead in the streets, and were left where they fell. "Many
went mad and cast themselves into wells or out of windows into the
Arno by reason of their great pain and horrible fear. Vast numbers
died unnoticed in their houses, and were left to putrefy upon their
beds. Many were buried before they were actually dead. Priests went
bearing the cross to accompany a corpse to burial, and before they
reached the church there were three or four biers following them.
The grass grew in the streets. So completely were all obligations of
blood and of affection forgotten, that men left their nearest and
dearest to die alone rather than incur the danger of infection."[356]
Nor was this all. Every sort of moral obligation was forgotten.
Boccaccio more than hints at this, and we have evidence from many
others. In the continual fear of death men and women often forgot
everything but the present moment, which they were content to enjoy
in each other's arms, even though they were strangers. Ah, poor
souls! Amid the terror and loneliness of the summer, when the hot
sunshine was more terrible than the darkness, which at least hid the
shame, the disorder, and the visible horror, there was no lack of
opportunities. All social barriers were gone, and rich and poor, bond
and free, took what they might desire. It was the same in Siena; and
if in Naples and the Romagna the deaths were less numerous, what are
a few thousands when the lowest mortality was more than two in every
five? People said the end of the world was come. In a sense they were
right. It was the end of the Middle Age.
In Florence there perished among the rest Giovanni Villani, as I have
said, and, as we may believe, Bice, the second wife of Boccaccino. In
Naples it seems certain that Fiammetta died.
But where was Boccaccio during those dreadful five months of 1348?
Was he with Fiammetta in Naples? Did he perhaps close her eyes
and bear her to the grave? Or was he in Florence with his father,
or in Forlì with the Ordelaffi? All we know is that he was not in
Florence,[357] and it therefore seems certain that he was either
in Naples, though we cannot say with Fiammetta, or in Forlì with
Ordelaffo. Wherever he was, he did not escape the terrible sights
that the plague brought in its train. He tells us of one of these
which he himself had seen in the Introduction to the _Decameron_. On
the whole, however, it seems likely that Boccaccio was in Naples at
this time, and Baldelli even cites the letter to Franceschino de'
Bardi, which he tells us bears the date of May 15, 1349,[358] and
which was certainly written in Naples. Wherever he may have been,
however, he was recalled to Florence by the death of his father,
which befell not in the plague, for in July, 1348, he added a codicil
to his Will,[359] but between that date and January, 1350, when, as
Manni proved, Giovanni was appointed tutor to his brother Jacopo.[360]
In that year, 1350, Boccaccio was thirty-seven years old, and,
save for his stepbrother Jacopo, he was now alone in the world.
His father was dead, his stepbrother Francesco had long since been
in the grave, and now Fiammetta also was departed. And those last
ten years, which had robbed him of so much, of his youth also, had
been among the most terrible that even Italy can ever have endured.
He had seen Florence run with blood, and every sort of torture and
horror stalk abroad in Naples. Rome, if he ventured there, can have
appeared to him but little less than a shambles. Rienzi, with all
that hope, had come and vanished like a ghost. The fairest province
in Italy lay under the heel of a barbarian invader. And as though
to add a necessary touch of irony to the tragedy that had passed
before his eyes, he had taken refuge and found such peace as he
enjoyed among the unruly and riotous _signorotti_ and bandits of
the Romagna, where properly peace was never found, but which amid
the greater revolutions on the western side of the Apennines seemed
perhaps peaceful enough. And then had come the pestilence, which
cared nothing for right or wrong, innocent or guilty, young or old,
bond or free, but slew all equally with an impartial and appalling
cruelty that was like a vengeance--the vengeance of God, men said.
In that vengeance, whether of God or of outraged nature, all that he
loved or cared for had been lost to him. That he always loved his
mother, dead so long ago, better than his father goes for nothing;
that he loved his father as all men love him who has given them life
is certain, he could not choose but love him. But in spite of the
easy laugh, too like a sneer to be quite true or sincere, at the
beginning of the _Decameron_, the wound he felt most nearly, that he
never really forgot or quite forgave, was the death of Fiammetta,
whom he had loved at first sight, with all the eagerness and fire of
his youth, with all his heart, as we might say, ruthlessly keeping
nothing back. From this time love meant nothing to him; there were
other women doubtless in his life, mirages that almost lured him to
despair or distraction, for he was always at the mercy of women; but
the passion, if we may so call it, which henceforth fills his life is
that of friendship--friendship for a great and a good man which, with
all its comfort, left him still with that vain shadow, that emptiness
in his heart--
"The grief which I have borne since she is dead."
FOOTNOTES:
[334] See Lett. 19 del Lib. XXIII, _Epist. Familiarum_. FRACASSETTI
has translated this letter into Italian: see _Lettere di Fr. Petrarca
volgarizz. Delle Cose Fam._, Vol. V, p. 91 _et seq._ Petrarch says:
"Adriæ in litore, ea ferme ætate, qua tu ibi agebas cum antiquo plagæ
illius domino eius avo qui nunc præsidet." It is Fracassetti who
dates this letter 1365 (Baldelli dates in 1362, and Tiraboschi in
1367). If, as we believe, Fracassetti is right, then Boccaccio must
have been in Ravenna in 1346, for in 1365 Guido da Polenta ruled
there, the son of Bernardino who died in 1359, the son of Ostasio,
who died November 14, 1346. Boccaccio had relations in Ravenna. In
the proem to the _De Genealogiis_ he tells us that Ostasio da Polenta
induced him to translate Livy.
[335] Yet there may be something in it. Baldelli tells us that
he wrote the _Vita di Dante_ in 1351, and in 1349 we find him in
communication with Petrarch. That Beatrice di Dante was in Ravenna
in 1346 seems certain. PELLI, _Memorie per servire alla vita di
Dante_ (Firenze, 1823), p. 45, says: "As for the daughter Beatrice
... one knows that she took the habit of a religious in the convent
of S. Stefano detto dell' Uliva in Ravenna." We know from a document
seen by Pelli that in 1350 the Or San Michele Society sent Beatrice
ten gold florins by the hand of Boccaccio. What I suggest is that
Boccaccio found her in Ravenna in 1346 very poor. He represented the
facts to the Or San Michele Society, who, after the Black Death of
1348, had plenty of money in consequence of all the legacies left
them and, as is well known, were very free with their plenty.
I give the document Pelli saw as he quotes it. He says he found it in
"un libro d' entrata ed uscita del 1350 tra gli altri esistenti nella
cancelleria de' capitani di Or San Michele risposto nell' armadio
alto di detta cancelleria." There, he says, is written the following
disbursement in the month of September, 1350: "A Messer Giovanni
di Bocchaccio ... fiorini dieci d' oro, perchè gli desse a suora
Beatrice figliuola che fu di Dante Alleghieri, monaca nel monastero
di S. Stefano dell' Uliva di Ravenna," etc. See also BERNICOLE in
_Giornale Dantesco_, An. VII (Series III), Quaderno vii (Firenze,
1899), p. 337 _et seq._, who rediscovered the document which is
republished by BIAGI and PESSERINI in _Codice Diplomatico Dantesco_,
Disp. 5 (1900).
[336] Cf. FERRETUS VICENTINUS, Lib. VII, in _R. I. S._, Tom. IX.
[337] CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 268. "Tertiæ vero Eclogæ titulus
est _Faunus_, nam cum eiusdam causa fuerit Franciscus de Ordolaffis
Forolivii Capitaneus, quem cum summe sylvas coleret et nemora, ob
insitam illi venationis delectationem ego sæpissime Faunum vocare
consueverim, eo quod Fauni sylvarum a poetis nuncupentur Dei, illam
Faunum nominavi. Nominibus autem collocutorum nullum significatum
volui, eo quod minime videretur opportunum."
[338] See HORTIS, _Studi sulle opere Latine del B._ (Trieste, 1879),
p. 5 _et seq._
[339] Here is part of the _Eclogue_ which will be useful to us:--
"Fleverunt montes Argum, flevere dolentes
Et Satyri, Faunique leves, et flevit Apollo.
Ast moriens silvas juveni commisit Alexo,
Qui cautus modicum, dum armenta per arva trahebat,
In gravidam tum forte lupam, rabieque tremendam
Incidit impavidus, nullo cum lumine lustrum
Ingrediens, cujus surgens sævissima guttur
Dentibus invasit, potuit neque ab inde revelli,
Donec et occulto spirasset tramite vita.
Hoc fertur, plerique volunt quod silva leones
Nutriat haec, dirasque feras, quibus ipse severus
Occurrens, venans mortem, suscepit Adonis
. . . . . . . sed postquam Tityrus ista
Cognovit de rupe cava, quæ terminat Istrum,
Flevit, et innumeros secum de vallibus altis
Danubii vocitare canes, durosque bubulcos
Infrendes coepit, linquensque armenta, suosque
Saltus, infandam tendit discerpere silvam
Atque lupam captare petit, flavosque leones,
Ut poenas tribuat meritis, nam frater Alexis
Tityrus iste fuit. Nunquid vidisse furentum
Stat menti, ferro nuper venabula acuto
Gestantem manibus, multos et retia post hunc
Portantes humeris, ira rabieque frementes,
Hac olim transire via."
_Eclog. III_, p. 267 (ed. Firenze, 1719).
[340] Petrarch also calls him Argo in his third _Eclogue_. See
HORTIS, _op. cit._, p. 6, n. 2.
[341] The lions--_biondi leoni_--according to Hortis, refer to
Niccolò Acciaiuoli, whose coat was a lion, but for me they are the
Conti della Leonessa. Cf. VILLANI, _op. cit._, Lib. XII, cap. 51.
When then did Boccaccio quarrel with Acciaiuoli?
[342]
"... multi per devia Tityron istum
Ex nostris, canibus sumptis, telisque sequuntur.
Inter quos Faunus, quem tristis et anxia fletu
Thestylis incassum revocat, clamoribus omnem
Concutiens silvam. Tendit tamen ille neglectis
Fletibus...." _Eclog. III_, p. 268, _ed. cit._
[343] It is well known, of course, that King Louis made two descents
into Italy: one in 1347 before the Black Death, and one after it in
1350. Hortis tells us that this _Eclogue_ is certainly dated 1348
(_op. cit._, p. 5, n. 4). It therefore must allude to the first
descent. This is confirmed, as Hortis points out, by the poems
themselves. (1) By the chronological order in which Boccaccio treats
of events in the _Eclogues_. The first two deal with his love, and
those immediately following the third, of the events of 1348. (2) By
the contents of the third _Eclogue_ itself, which deals first with
the happiness of Naples under King Robert, with his death, the murder
of Andrew, and the descent of King Louis, his passage, as we shall
see, through Forlì in 1347, whence Francesco degli Ordelaffi set out
with him for Lower Italy: all of which happened not in the second,
but in the first (1347) descent of King Louis.
[344] VILLANI, _Cronica_, Lib. XII, cap. 107.
[345] Cf. _Annales Cæsenates R. I. S._, Tom. XIV, col. 1179,
and HORTIS, _op. cit._, p. 8, n. 3. The latter argues long and
successfully for the departure of Ordelaffo with King Louis at
this date: to which he also ascribes the letters of Boccaccio to
Zanobi (_Quam pium, quam sanctum_), by some considered apochryphal
(CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 447), where Boccaccio says: "Varronem
quidem nondum habui: eram tamen habiturus in brevi, nisi itinera
instarent ad illustrem Hungariæ regem in estremis Brutiorum et
Campaniæ quo moratur, nam ut sua imitetur arma iustissima meus
inclitus dominus et Pieridum hospes gratissimus cum pluribus Flamineæ
proceribus præparetur; quo et ipse, mei prædicti domini jussu non
armiger, sed ut ita loquar rerum occurrentium arbiter sum iturus, et
præestantibus Superis, omnes in brevi victoria habita et celebrato
triumpho dignissime proprias [_sic_] revisuri." The letter is dated
Forlì.
[346] Cf. FRACASSETTI, in a note to Lett. 3 of Lib. XXI, _Lett. Fam._
of Petrarch; and as regards Boccaccio, see BALDELLI, in note to
Sonnet xcix., written for Cecco (Moutier, Vol. XVI, p. 175).
[347] Cf. HORTIS, _op. cit._, pp. 8 and 267-77. Cf. CORAZZINI, _op.
cit._, p. 447.
[348] That he met King Louis is certain. In the third _Eclogue_ he
says:--
"Nunquid vidisse furentem
Stat menti."
[349] In the letters to Zanobi, spoken of above, beginning _Quam
pium, quam sanctum_, he says he is going to the illustrious King of
Hungary in the confines of the Abruzzi and of Campania: "Ad illustrem
Hungariæ regem in estremis Brutiorum et Campaniæ."
[350] VILLANI, _op. cit._, Lib. XII, cap. 51, believed in the guilt
of Giovanna, but he was writing from hearsay. He says the Queen lived
in adultery with Louis of Taranto and with Robert of Taranto and with
the son of Charles d'Artois and with Jacopo Capano.
[351] Boccaccio was and remained all his life a keen Guelf and
supporter of the House of Anjou. Of that no doubt is possible. Cf.
HORTIS, _op. cit._, p. 109.
[352] See especially SACCHETTI, Nov. XXI and CLVIII.
[353] M. VILLANI, _Cronica_, Lib. I, cap. ii.
[354] Cf. G. VILLANI, Lib. XII, cap. 84. After the horrible
slaughters and wars in Florence, and indeed in all Tuscany, the
disgraceful state of affairs in Naples, it is not wonderful that
pestilence broke out and found a congenial soil.
[355] G. MORELLI, _Cronica_, p. 280. Cf. G. BIAGI, _La vita privata
dei Fiorentini_ (Milano, 1899), pp. 77-9.
[356] W. HEYWOOD, _The Ensamples of Fra Filippo_ (Torrini Siena,
1901), p. 80 _et seq._
[357] In the Commentary on the _Divine Comedy_ (Moutier, Vol. XI, p.
105) he says: "E se io ho il vero inteso, perciocchè in que' tempi io
non ci era, io odo, che in questa città avvenne a molti nell' anno
pestifero del MCCCXLVIII, che essendo soprappresi gli uomini dalla
peste, e vicini alla morte, ne furon più e più, i quali de' loro
amici, chi uno e chi due, e chi più ne chiamò, dicendo, vienne tale e
tale; de' quali chiamati e nominati assai, secondo l' ordine tenuto
dal chiamatore, s' eran morti, e andatine appresso al chiamatore...."
This might seem evidence enough that Boccaccio was not in Florence
in 1348, for he expressly says so. There is a passage, however, in
the _Decameron_ Introduction where he seems to say that he was in
Florence; but as we shall see, we misunderstand him. He says: "So
marvellous is that which I have now to relate that had not many, _and
I among them_, observed it with their own eyes I had hardly dared to
credit it...." He then goes on to tell us (assuring us again that he
had seen it himself) that one day two hogs came nosing among the rags
of a poor wretch who had died of the disease, and immediately they
"gave a few turns and fell down dead as if from poison...." But this
might have happened in Naples or Forlì quite as well as in Florence.
It is only right to add that the Moutier edition of the _Comento
sopra Dante_ notes that the MS. from which it is printed reads 1340
instead of 1348 in the passage already quoted. This may or may not be
an error. There was a plague in Florence in 1340. See VILLANI, _op.
cit._, Lib. XII, cap. lxxiii.
[358] See the letter in CORAZZINI, _op. cit._, p. 23. It is written
in the Neapolitan dialect, and in all the versions I have been able
to see bears the date of no year at all. It is signed thus: "In
Napoli, lo juorno de sant' Anniello--Delli toi Jannetto di Parisse
dalla Ruoccia."
[359] Cf. MANNI, _Istoria del Decamerone_ (Firenze, 1742), p. 21.
See also KOERTING, _op. cit._, p. 179, and especially CRESCINI, _op.
cit._, p. 257 _et seq._
[360] Cf. MANNI, _u.s._