Italian Studies

DUECENTO AND TRECENTO II (EXCLUDING DANTE)

By JOAN HALL, Cambridge

I. GENERAL A useful resource for those interested in the relationship between textual and pictorial narrative in this period is Il codice miniato. Rapporti tra codice, testa e figura;::,ione, Atti del Ill Congresso di Storia della Miniatura, ed. M. Ceccanti and M. C. Castelli, F, Olschki, xiv + 482 pp. Italian 13th- and 14th-c. books (nearly all liturgical) figure more or less prominently in most of the 31 illustrated essays, which focus on specific codices or follow the graphic representation of particular biblical or hagiological themes through several centuries. E. Artifoni, 'Sull'eloquenza politica nel Duecento italiano', QMed, 35:5 7-78, considers sociological and rhetorical aspects of 13th-c. civic oratory. On religious literature, M. P. Alberzoni, *'I francescani milanesi e gli studi di teologia tra due e trecento', Franceschini Vol., 3-34. On narrative, Giusi Baldassone, Le voci della novella, storia di una scrittura da ascolto, F, Olschki, 1992, 290 pp., surveys the history of the novella from the Novellino to our time from the point of view of its 'orality', or rather the relationship between its oral background and its written forms. The early period (through Sercambi) occupies the first 57 pages. A related theme, in a still earlier time frame, is covered by W. Haug, *'Exempel und Exempelsammlungen im narrativen Rahmen: von Pancatantra zum Dekameron', Haug, Exempel, 264-87. A bibliographical essay is M. Ferrari, *'Libri "moderni" e "antiqui" nella biblioteca di San Francesco Grande di Milano', Franceschini Vol., 187-241.

2. BoccAccw Joseph P. Consoli, Giovanni Boccaccio: An Annotated Bibliography, NY, Garland, 1992, xiv + 484 pp., surveys materials in several languages covering a very wide range of works related to Boccaccio. J. T. Schnapp, 'A commentary on commentary in Boccaccio', SAQ, 91, 1992:813-34, opens with a broad analysis of commentary as a cultural artefact: basically an accommodation between ancient literature (especially sacred books) and the present. The article focuses on B.'s self-commentary in various works, including the treatise on Dante, De mulieribus, De casibus, the De genealogia, and most extensively the Teseida, in which B.'s comments justify and explain the creation of an epic poem in the vernacular, giving the work a central Italian Studies importance for the development of I 4th-c. Italian literature. Schnapp covers the same ground in 'Un commento all'autocommento nel Teseida', StB, 20, I99I-92: I85-203. Victoria Kirkham, The Sign of Reason in Boccaccio's Fiction, F, Olschki, 28I pp., is a collection of essays dealing with B.'s philosophical poetics and the role of Thomist rationalism in his works. The first essay (I 7-53) is on the Teseida; the second, 'Amorous vision, scholastic vistas' (55-I I6), the only one not previously published, presents the Amorosa visione as a moral allegory. The rest of the book concerns the Decameron, ending with a discussion of the Griselda story. By the same author, 'John Badmouth: fortunes of the poet's image', StB, 20, I99I-92: 355-70, traces the varying perception of B. as a person through the centuries. A. K. Cassell, 'Boccaccio's Caccia di Diana: horizon of expectation', ftC, 9, I 99 I : 85-I 02, is a sympathetic commentary on this early work, in which the critic sees a reflection of B.'s somewhat disadvantaged social position and his efforts to obtain patronage. The writer argues that although this brief epic in terza rima is relatively unimportant from the literary or aesthetic point of view, as a subversion of the 'triumph' genre ( cf. Purg. xxx-xxxm, Petrarch's Trionfi) it marks a major step in B.'s development. The animals and hunt episodes are traced to literary origins in bestiaries and mythology. W. Wetherbee, 'History and romance in B.'s Teseida', StB, 20, Iggi-gz: I73-84, examines B.'s handling of literary genres in that work; R. L. Martinez, 'Before the Teseida: Statius and Dante in Boccaccio's epic', ib., 205-I9, discusses the role of the Thebaid and the Commedia as models. James H. McGregor, The Shades of Aeneas. The Imitation of Vergil and the History of Paganism in Boccaccio's 'Filostrato', 'Filocolo' and 'Teseida', Athens, Georgia U.P., I99I, I30 pp., argues that B. shared Dante's interest in the details of Roman religion, the imitation of Virgil, and the condemnation of paganism. The three early romances are reinterpreted in relation to the Aeneid, as polemically serious works. The same subject is given a slightly different focus in Id., The Image ofAntiqui£y in Boccaccio's Filocolo, Filostrato and Teseida, NY, Lang, I 99 I, I 92 pp. Another classical source is examined by G. Vio, 'Chiose e riscritture apuleiane di Giovanni Boccaccio', StB, 20, I99I-92: I 3g- 66, with an amply documented analysis ofB.'s handling of material from Apuleius in the Epistole, the Comedia delle ninfe florentine, the Teseida and several novelle of the Decameron, especially IV,6.J. Usher, '11 piombo incandescente del Filocolo', ib., I 3 I-38, traces and analyses the simile whereby the anger of the king is compared to a leaden missile which becomes white-hot from the impetus of flight. The trope is defined as a 'modesta prova di erudizione sincretica' in this early work. Another classical theme is traced in Id., '"Quid referam Baias": Boccaccio e il topos dei bagni', MedRom, r8: 105-14. The