Tales From the Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

by Giovanni Boccaccio

  3. the time you took us along the Mugnone See VIII, 3.

  Seventh Story

  1. leaving her a widow The sexual magnetism of widows was a common theme in medieval literature. Other examples in the Decameron itself are seen in II, 2, IV, 1, VIII, 4, VIII, 7 and IX, 1. In the questioni d’amore sequence of the Filocolo (Book IV), there is a long discussion on the question, eventually answered in the affirmative, of whether the love of a widow is preferable to that of a virgin. In stressing the attractions of widows, B. was following the precepts of medieval love theorists such as Andreas Capellanus.

  2. Rinieri The scholar of this tale, the longest in the Decameron, is thought by many commentators to be in part a self-portrait, the account of Rinieri’s encounter with the widow Elena reflecting some keenly felt personal experience of unrequited love. An interpretation along those lines seems to be strengthened by a later work, Corbaccio, in which B. writes a first-person narrative describing how he fell desperately in love with a widow by whom he was heartlessly rejected. He describes a dream in which he meets the soul of the woman’s late husband, who provides such a detailed catalogue of her numerous repellent shortcomings that the narrator is cured of his infatuation. The Corbaccio is possibly the most violent antifeminist diatribe in medieval literature. The tale of the scholar and the widow, also strongly misogynist in tone, casts serious doubt upon B.’s oft-repeated claim, in the pages of the Decameron, that his purpose is to bring comfort and pleasure to his lady readers. Another important feature of the tale is the cleverly arranged series of retributive measures, exact opposites of his own torments, that are devised by the scholar to avenge his humiliation. One is reminded of Dante’s law of contrapasso, whereby sinners are punished exactly according to their deserts, in most cases with what would seem excessive force.

  3. turned into a stork The same expression was used to describe Rinaldo d’Asti in a similar predicament (II, 2).

  4. shake your skin-coat ‘coït’ (Partridge). The Italian reads ‘scuotere i pilliccioni,’ a phrase repeated by Dioneo in his provocative concluding gloss on the story of Griselda (p. 795).

  Eighth Story

  1. Spinelloccio Tavena… Zeppa di Mino The names are those of actual people recorded as living in the Camollia district of Siena around the turn of the fourteenth century, but unlike the characters in B.’s story, both were prominent city burghers. As in the previous tale, the events recall Dante’s law of contrapasso, in this case applied with less severity, and leading (according to the author) to a happy ending for all of the parties concerned.

  2. his dishonour would thereby be increased Zeppa’s reactions to his discovery that he has been cuckolded are precisely the same as those of King Agilulf in III, 2. In the code of honour to which B.’s readers subscribed, keeping up appearances was sometimes more important than acknowledging reality.

  Ninth Story

  1. vair A fur, usually from a grey and white squirrel, used for trimming doctoral gowns, which were (and still are) traditionally red in colour. Florentine physicians were trained at Bologna, the oldest Italian university. The university at Florence was not founded until 1349.

  2. Via del Cocomero Literally ‘Water-Melon Street’, it now forms part of the Via Ricasoli, near the Mercato Vecchio. In IX, 3, the location of Simone’s surgery is given as ‘the Mercato Vecchio, at the sign of the pumpkin’. In each case, it is implied that the occupier of the premises was a simpleton.

  3. mentioned twice here today See VIII, 3 and VIII, 6.

  4. the Lucifer at San Gallo The façade of the hospital of San Gallo, like the Camposanto in Pisa, carried a large fresco of Lucifer with several mouths, each devouring a sinner. The image derives from Dante, who in canto XXXIV of Inferno reserves this punishment for the worst of all sinners, those who committed an act of treachery to their lords and benefactors, specifically Judas, Brutus and Cassius. Dante’s conception of Lucifer was probably inspired by the iconographical tradition of Doom mosaics and frescoes. Both he and Boccaccio would have been familiar with just such a mosaic on the ceiling of the Baptistery in Florence.

  5. the cross of Montesone Montesone, or Montisoni, is a hill not far from Florence surmounted by a large cross.

  6. Michael Scott Scottish philosopher who lived at the court of Frederick II of Sicily. He became a legendary figure in the Middle Ages as a master of the occult sciences. Dante places him among the souls of the Sorcerers in the lower depths of Hell, describing him in Inferno, XX, 115–16 as one who ‘truly knew every trick of the magical arts’ (‘veramente/delle magiche frode seppe il gioco’). In more recent literature, he is referred to in Scott’s Lay of the Last Minstrel as the wizard of Balwearie.

  7. the Skinkymurra of Prester John Bruno’s hilarious catalogue of apocryphal first ladies concludes with a reference to the supposed consort of Prester John, himself a figure of dubious authenticity, who was said to be the fabulously wealthy pro-Christian ruler of a far-flung eastern empire. Legends concerning Prester John and his determination to drive the Muslims from Jerusalem, brought back to western Europe by the crusaders, were subject to rich embellishment in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

  8. the cumin A medicinal herb with aromatic seeds, said to be effective in expelling wind.

  9. a chamber-pot over his front door The distinctive sign for a doctor’s surgery, urine analysis being the most commonly used method of diagnos ing ailments. But like the previous reference to the pounding of cumin, mention of the chamber-pot is also one of a series of signals en route to the tale’s scatological ending.

  10. Hippocras and Avicenna Hippocras, or Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 377 BC) is traditionally regarded as the father of medicine. Avicenna (AD 980–1037), the renowned Persian physician, wrote the Canon of Medicine, one of the most famous books in the history of medical science.

  11. Peretola A small town about three miles west of Florence.

  12. Cacavincigli Yet another scatological reference anticipating the conclusion of the narrative, Cacavincigli (literally ‘shit-fodder’) was the Florentine name for a street or alley inhabited by riff-raff.

  13. Vallecchio A village some twenty miles south-west of Florence, now forming part of Castelfiorentino.

  14. Forlimpopoli A town between ForlÍ and Cesena. The farcical associations of its name were exploited four centuries later by Carlo Goldoni for one of his most famous comic creations, the Marchese di Forlimpopoli, in La locandiera (1753). The name of the magistrate to whom Master Simone refers, Guasparruolo da Saliceto, is probably based on Guglielmo da Saliceto, a well-known professor of medicine at Bologna at the turn of the fourteenth century.

  15. the great tall God of Passignano Passignano lies on the northern shore of Lake Trasimeno. Its main church had a large fresco depicting God the Father.

  16. you were christened on a Sunday Buffalmacco is implying that Simone is brainless, because sale (‘salt’, but also ‘mother-wit’) could not be bought on Sundays.

  17. the Countess of Cesspool The original text reads la Contessa di Civilian. One of B.’s early commentators explains that Civilian was an alleyway on the outskirts of Florence used as a public lavatory, from which local farmers dug channels to draw off rich fertilizing material for their crops.

  18. Laterina An obvious scatological pun on the name of a village in the Arno valley, not far from Arezzo.

  19. the raised tombs Most of the sarcophagi outside Santa Maria Novella were erected there in 1314.

  20. a Knight of the Bath The Italian text reads cavalier bagnato. Like most chivalric orders, the British Order of the Bath, established by King George I in 1725, has antecedents dating from the Middle Ages. Bathing as a purification ritual for newly created knights was probably introduced as early as the eleventh century.

  21. I was commenced ‘I received my degree.’ The verb is still current at degree ceremonies in Trinity College, Dublin, and at Cambridge.

  22. no longer held The narrator is probably referring to the Gioco del Veglio (‘Game of t
he Old Man’), a mummer’s dance featuring the impersonation of the Devil, banned in Florence in 1325.

  23. Santa Maria della Scala… the nunnery of Ripole Buffalmacco’s route lay along what is now known as the Via della Scala, past the hospital of Santa Maria (later the monastery of San Martino), founded in 1316, towards the nunnery of Sant’ Jacopo di Ripoli. According to Vasari and others the latter contained paintings by both Bruno and Buffalmacco.

  Tenth Story

  1. dogana The Italian word for customs or custom-house is Arabic in origin. In the present context, it is one of a series of elements that lend an exotic flavour to the narrative. The opening paragraph is important as the earliest recorded description, based no doubt upon personal experience, of the workings of a bonded warehouse.

  2. Niccolò da Cignano The Cignano family was very active in Florentine civic affairs. The name Niccoló di Cecco da Cignano appears in the municipal records around the middle of the fourteenth century. He was possibly employed by the Compagnia Scali, which enjoyed special trading privileges in Angevin territories in Naples and Sicily.

  3. Jancofiore The Sicilian form of Biancofiore, or Blanchefleur, the Saracen. heroine of the Old French metrical romance used by B. as the basis for his turgid prose romance, Filocolo. There is an obvious parallel between Janco-fiore and the scheming Sicilian woman in the story of Andreuccio (II, 5).

  4. Pietro dello Canigiano A fellow Florentine and contemporary of B., Pietro dello Canigiano was an influential figure in Angevin courtly circles.

  5. Empress of Constantinople Catherine of Valois-Courtenay (1301–46), a descendant of the last Latin emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II.

  6. Monegasque pirates Paganino, the swashbuckling hero of II, 10, also came from Monaco, a notorious haven for pirates.

  (Conclusion)

  1. whatever subject he or she may choose The stories of the ninth day, like those of the first, will not be restricted to a single prescribed topic.

  NINTH DAY

  (Introduction)

  1. the eighth heaven In the Ptolemaic system, the heaven of the ‘fixed’ stars.

  First Story

  1. Palermini… Chiarmontesi Both families are recorded by Giovanni Villani as being exiled from Florence for political feuding in support of the Ghibellines. The Chiarmontesi later switched their allegiance to the Guelphs.

  2. Francesco de’ Lazzari The de’ Lazzari were a powerful Pistoia family, well known for their active support of the guelphs.

  3. she conceived a plan Stories concerning the stratagems of women to rid themselves of unwanted suitors were commonplace in medieval literature. B. himself narrates another in X, 5.

  4. Scannadio The nickname itself (literally ‘slit the throat of God’) suggests a person of uncommon villainy.

  Second Story

  1. psalters Nuns’ veils were so called because their triangular shape resembled that of the musical instrument known as a psalter or psaltery.

  Third Story

  1. Nello Nello di Bandino, a close friend of Bruno and Buffalmacco, is portrayed in IX, 5 as being related to Calandrino’s wife, Tessa.

  2. Master Simone See VIII, 9 for an account of the origins of the doctor’s ‘dose friendship’ with Bruno and Buffalmacco.

  Fourth Story

  1. Angiulieri Cecco Angiolieri (c. 1260–c. 1312), a contemporary of Dante’s, was the leading figure in the school of burlesque realist poetry that flourished in Tuscany at the turn of the fourteenth century.

  2. Fortarrigo Cecco di Fortarrigo Piccolomini, to whom one of Angio-lieri’s sonnets is addressed, was charged with murder in 1293 and found guilty, but the sentence was not carried out.

  3. their hatred of their respective fathers A well-known sonnet of Angiolieri’s contains the line ‘S’ i’ fosse morte, andarei da mio padre’ (‘If I were death, I’d pay a call on my father’). In a later sonnet addressed to Fortarrigo, he announces the death of his own father, at the same time wishing Fortarrigo’s equally detested father immortality. It would seem that B. had the two sonnets in mind when composing his narrative, although his description of Angiolieri (‘as handsome a man as he was courteous’) contradicts the image of the man that emerges from a reading of Angiolieri’s poems.

  4. Buonconvento A small town about twenty-five miles south of Siena, where the traveller to the Marches would take a left fork.

  5. at the hour of nones About 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

  6. Corsignano A town some twelve miles east of Buonconvento, later renamed Pienza by Pope Pius II, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who was born there in 1405.

  7. Torrenieri Another small town, roughly halfway between Buonconvento and Corsignano.

  Fifth Story

  1. Niccoló Cornacchini The Cornacchini were merchant bankers, trading in partnership with the better known Compagnia dei Frescobaldi. Their foreign interests included a branch in England.

  2. Camerata A location between Florence and Fiesole where many wealthy Florentines owned country villas. Camerata was also the setting for the story of the mysterious werewolf (VII, 1).

  3. Camaldoli A street in the San Pier Maggiore quarter.

  4. Tessa Calandrino’s wife.

  5. rebeck A three-stringed musical instrument of the viola family, with a pear-shaped body and slender neck.

  6. with all those stones See the story of Calandrino and the heliotrope (VIII, 3).

  7. getting you with child Monna Tessa is referring to the explanation Calandrino had given for his supposed pregnancy (IX, 3).

  Sixth Story

  1. the Mugnone The Mugnone valley, where Calandrino went searching for the heliotrope (VIII, 3), runs north from Florence towards the Romagna.

  2. three small beds The story of the three beds will be familiar to English readers from Chaucer’s use of the same narrative material in The Reeve’s Tale. The tale had originally appeared in two French fabliaux: De Gombert et les deux clers and Le meunier et les deux clers. B.’s version differs from the others in two important respects. Not only does the host’s wife, like the first of the youths, occupy all three beds at various points in the narrative, but by ending up in her daughter’s bed she is able to weave a fanciful explanation of what has actually happened, convincing her husband that neither she herself nor their daughter has been interfered with. Thus the story reaches a conclusion that is satisfactory to all of the parties concerned.

  Seventh Story

  1. on previous occasions See IV, 5 and IV, 6.

  2. Talano d’Imolese The name suggests that, though living in Florence, his family came from Imola, in the Romagna. Talano is a shortened form of Catalano, a name which, according to Branca, was not uncommon in Florence at that period. Stories concerning the unpleasant fate of shrewish women who ignored danger signals are found in other literatures, but this tale, like the tale of the scholar and the widow (VIII, 7) and that of Solomon’s advice to the hen-pecked husband (IX, 9), strengthens the view that the Decameron is not so feminist a work as its author would have us believe.

  Eighth Story

  1. Ciacco The name, probably a diminutive of Giacomo or Jacopo, became synonymous with the sin of gluttony because of a well-known episode in canto VI of Dante’s Inferno, where the souls of the gluttonous are subjected to an uninterrupted and foul-smelling torrent of hail, snow and polluted rain. The sinners are lying prone, but Ciacco raises himself to a sitting position and supplies Dante with a prophecy of the poet’s imminent exile from Florence. There is no actual record that either Ciacco or his antagonist in B.’s story, Biondello, ever existed.

  2. Vieri de’ Cerchi A rich and powerful political leader, head of the Florentine White Guelphs, Vieri de’ Cerchi was exiled in 1301 and died in Arezzo in 1304.

  3. Corso Donati’s Nicknamed ‘II Barone’, Corso Donati was the head of the Black Guelphs. He was exiled in 1300, returned to Florence with the support of Charles of Valois in 1301, and was murdered by his political adversaries in 1308.

  4. Loggia de’ Cavicc
iuli A gallery forming part of the residence of the Cavicciuli-Adimari family on the Corso Adimari, now the Via Calzaiuoli.

  5. Filippo Argenti Filippo degli Adimari dei Cavicciuli, renowned for his ostentatious displays of wealth, was called Filippo Argenti because he was said to have had his horse shod with silver (argento). His irascibility is memorably recorded by Dante in canto VIII of Inferno, where his spirit, immersed in the muddy waters of the Styx, attempts to emerge and grab Dante as he is crossing the river with his guide, Virgil.

  Ninth Story

  1. Solomon The son of David and Bathsheba, Solomon died around 930 BC. His legendary wisdom supplies B. with a pretext for recounting yet another strongly anti-feminist narrative (cf. VIII, 7 and IX, 7), this time set in remote antiquity.

  2. the rod is required ‘Yes, but not a wooden one’ is the gloss supplied by one of B.’s earliest commentators, Mannelli.

  3. Melissus The name is that of a Greek philosopher of the fifth century BC, here used anachronistically to enhance the impression of the story’s ancient provenance.

  4. Lajazzo In B.’s day, a flourishing port and trading centre in the eastern Mediterranean. See note to V, 7.

  5. Love… and you will be loved The saying appears in numerous contexts in classical and medieval moralistic writings, for example in one of Seneca’s letters, where he writes ‘Si vis amari, ama’ (‘If you want to be loved, love!’).

  Tenth Story

  1. Barletta… Barolo Barletta is a port on the Adriatic about thirty miles north-west of Bari. Both the Bardi and the Peruzzi had trading posts there. Apart from a brief reference to Brindisi and Trani in II, 4, this is the only story in the Decameron set in the southern Italian province of Puglia, then a part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Barolo is the italianized form of the town’s Latin name, Barduli.