RICERCA ITALIANA     

Boccaccio: sources and survival

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Abstract

Latin sources of Boccaccio's works: Boccaccio's library; texts copied, read or annotated by him. Boccaccio and the Greek culture. Checklist and analitic description of XVth and XVIth-Century editions of Boccaccio's works; paratextual materials. Boccaccio's influence on the humanistic discussions on poetry and on XVth-Century collections of biographies. Sixteenth-Century edition of the Decameron and the Rassettature: ideological, philological, linguistic problems. L. Salviati's edition of the Decameron and his defence in the Avvertimenti sopra la lingua del Decameron; critical edition of the first book of the Avvertimenti. <<<

Principal Investigator

Mirella Ferrari Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Research Objectives

An accurate investigation on all the books copied, read and annotated by Boccaccio can shed light on the Latin sources of Boccaccio's Latin works. A thoroughly research of the surviving volumes from the library of Boccaccio will be carried out and of all the Latin texts, particularly Latin classics, which were known to him. Particular attention will be devoted to Martial, to the text of this poet which is transmitted by his autograph codex, to the influence exerted by Martial on the humanistic epigrammmatic poetry, after Boccaccio's discovery. Boccaccio's knowledge of Greek language and literature will be investigated. A complete checklist and analitic description of the XVth and XVIth-Century editions of Boccaccio will be prepared, with particular attention to the paratextual materials (titles, indexes, colophons, etc.). The influence of books XIV and XIV of Genealogie deorum gentilium on humanistic discussion on poetry will be traced and so will be the influence of De mulieribus claris on humanistic collections of biographies. Ideological, philological, linguistic problems of Sixteenth-Century editions of the Decameron will be studied. A synoptic comparison will emphasize the affinities and differences of the expurgated editions of the Decameron, from V. Borghini (Florence 1573) to L. Salviati (Florence 1582) and L. Groto (Venice 1588 and 1590). In order to understand the criteria of correction used for the Rassettature, the defence written by Salviati to justify his methods of edition (Avvertimenti sopra la lingua del Decameron, first book) will be critically edited. The complex influence of Boccaccio on the history of the Italian language will be explored: the Accademici della Crusca copied citations from the Decameron on their cards, to use them later in the entries of the Vocabolario. The complete mapping of these citations will be carried out. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

In the fourteenth century the rediscovery of ancient literature provided a primary source for several writers; classical masterpieces were quoted in new works, both in vernacular Italian and in Latin.
In this milieu Giovanni Boccaccio played a basic role.
Boccaccio had a passionate interest in ancient literature and poetry, both Greek and Latin, and copied a number of mediaeval Latin texts in his manuscripts. He was a gatherer of texts; the classical texts preserved at Montecassino are particularly important among these; Zanobi da Strada co-operated for the Montecassino discovery.
All the manuscripts of Boccaccio where transferred to the library of Santo Spirito in Florence, where a catalogue listed them as the bulk of the "parva libraria" in 1451 .
Dante was most influencial on Boccaccio; at the same time Boccaccio claimed Petrarch as his master. The admiration and friendship of Boccaccio for Petrarch, and the influence of Petrarch's humanism on Boccaccio's scholarship have been investigated; but little has been done to shed light upon the relationship between Boccaccio and the Italian cultural circles inspired by Dante.
The editorial history of Boccaccio's works between the Fifteenth and the Sixteenth Centuries is extremely complex because of the wide range of its distinguishing features, first of all the geo-topographic issue that endorses beyond the Alps (France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Iberian region) the success not only of a masterpiece like the Decameron, but also Latin texts like De casibus virorum illustrium and De mulieribus claris, whose editiones principes were printed in Strasburg [Georg Husner 1474-1475] and in Ulm, Johann Zainer, 1473 (GW 4430, 4483). Furthermore, no editions of these Latin works was printed in Italy during the Fifteenth Century.
The figurative theme should also be taken into full consideration, after the keen and revolutionary studies of Vittore Branca and of an international group of scholars; text and illustrations are to be studied in parallel in manuscripts and printed editions.
The editions of Boccaccio, especially the incunables, which witness a Fortleben of the Latin works unpaired in the following centuries, are often put aside or are studied only in function of their illustrations. A focused and wide inquire appears urgent, in order to understand all the materials according to their historical and cultural meaning. <<<