Genealogy and Kinship as Unifying Device in Andrea da Barberino's 1 La Storia di Aiolfo dal Barbicone

Gloria Allaire Gettysburg College

An oft-repeated misconception concerning chivalric literature in Italy claims that the fusion of epic and romance materials was a product of the Renaissance. According to Pio Rajna (and many histories of Italian literature that cite him), the "miracle" of fusing the two narrative cycles was accomplished by Boiardo in his Orlando innamorato (Russo 1:482). Yet the commingling of "matters," as any student of French chansons de geste knows, occurred long before Boiardo composed his Innamorato. This study examines an ignored, early fifteenth-century Italian text which clearly demonstrates that hybridization of "pure" Carolingian cycle epic—insofar as any composition may be so neatly defined—with Arthurian romance elements predates the high Renaissance.2 In addition, changes made to the possible French model by Italians demonstrate the process of adapting a text to meet the narrative demands of a different audience or readership based on their own cultural or social norms. Many of the changes made relate to the importance of kinship in the growing urban centers of Italy, a theme that must be viewed in its historical context. The surviving French Aiol, part of the geste of Saint- Gilles, is generally considered an epic although it already "thwarts attempts at generic categorization" (Obergfell, "Problem" 21). The much longer Italian reworking into prose by the Florentine Andrea da Barberino (c. 13701431/3) has proven no less a critical 48 Gloria Allaire stumbling block for the handful of scholars who have examined it.3 The nineteenth-century editors of Aiol dismissed Aiolfo as "une mauvaise imitation" by an unfaithful translator who mixed amorous elements with martial ones, thereby tainting the purity of the apparent French source (Normand and Raynaud xlvi). The only full-length study of Aiolfo—a 1949 dissertation by Barbara Schmidt—recognizes its departures from Aiol in Burckhardtian terms as being "on the threshold of the Renaissance" (154, translation mine). Yet far from viewing these innovations in a positive light, Schmidt is fundamentally dismayed by them, still seeing them through the eyes of nineteenth-century scholars who decried any changes to a model as sacrilege to the nationalistic epic genre. However, precisely this loosening of generic boundaries—the reduction of Christian didacticism, the shift from national to familial loyalties, the increased co-presence of female characters and the love theme,4 the marked change in tone from gravity to gallantry and even the addition of delicate humorous touches—makes Aiolfo exemplary, not as a failed translation, but as a witness to the development of a text in accord with the demands of a particular readership. Negative judgements such as those mentioned above raise questions about the interpretation of medieval narratives themselves. Nineteenth-century critics were often perplexed by texts that were reworked or translated from recognizable sources: they dismissed reworkings that departed from a model as failed attempts at producing a "faithful" translation according to modern norms. Innovations were frequently viewed with distrust: not admitted as evidence of creative ability on the part of a single author, they were often relegated to the category of evidence for lost, earlier versions. Yet such deliberate changes are at the heart of medieval reinvention or recreation.Within the broad category of chivalric literature in Italy, the notion of innovations has been valorized to a certain extent with respect to orally transmitted texts. In this case, changes to a model were viewed positively as evidence of the streetsinger's sensitivity to the immediate demands of a public audience. Yet critical

Olifant

Genealogy & Kinship 49 pronouncements that endow the creation of an orally transmitted text with the praiseworthy aura of "popularity" tend to rob the individual (re)writer of his autonomy. In the case of Renaissance poets such as Pulci, Boiardo and Ariosto, the author's autonomy is once again tempered by the oft-acknowledged demands of pleasing a noble patron. In this scenario, the author is seen as a Hapless craftsman, rather like some anonymous fresco painter or metalworker ordered to produce a luxury object according to the specifications of a paid commission. The notion of a narrator making choices independent from a listening public or literary patron, using and combining known written models to produce a viable reworking of his own stamp, a text that was furthermore designed to be both read and heard, is an anomaly that has been avoided by many modern literary scholars. Yet, this procedure, grosso modo, is what many humanist authors did. The role of a valid author/reworker/interpreter of pre-existing texts has been denied to authors of vernacular literature while simultaneously being lauded within the realm of a scholastically sanctioned literary canon. The anomalous case of a vernacular writer shaping his source material according to a non-courtly readership is well represented by the epic romances of Andrea da Barberino. Although contemporary documents demonstrate that he made his living as a cantastorie and read his prose works in the Piazza San Martino in Florence, textual and codicological evidence shows that these lengthy texts were equally designed for a private readership and were transmitted in written form (Allaire, Andrea da Barberino 10). Whereas numerous references to "tu, lettore" ("you, reader") occur in his vast output, the only two references to listeners appear in I Reali di Francia, a probable early work.5 Throughout most of maestro Andrea's works, explicit references to written sources as well as cross- referencing within his texts to events in earlier sections show the essentially literary quality of his narrative cycle. Thus we have a professional storyteller who shaped his written models for the tastes of his readers and who, as far as we know, did not work by direct commission of a civic or courtly patron.

21.1-2 50 Gloria Allaire Maestro Andrea's narratives show a clear sensitivity to his milieu, the merchant oligarchy of Republican Florence, and herein lies the importance of the innovations in Aiolfo. His lexicon features certain unusual words and motifs that are not generally found in contemporary chivalric tales. He includes lexical items that correspond to actual chronicles such as those by Giovanni Sercambi and Matteo Villani; linguistic and motivic features chosen from the best vernacular literature then in circulation (Dante, Boccaccio); and tropes and rhetorical devices derived from classical authors known in his day (Vergil, Ovid, Statius). Other expressions reflect actual legal, militaristic or social practices of his day. For instance, the notion of frequent propitiatory religious processions, armeggerie, ambassadors who arrive at treaty talks carrying palm branches, and the full-length, distinguished garments worn by statesmen or high-ranking personages are described by maestro Andrea with language identical to that of contemporary ricordi. Far from being simple literary conventions or borrowings, such innovations mirror the actual socio-historical realities of the author and his readership. In her comparative reading of Aiol and Aiolfo, Schmidt points out numerous apparent inventions of maestro Andrea that were not found in Aiol. These include the creation of the young Christian hero Bosolino; certain adventures, especially with regard to exotic lands and races (including various giants); and a notably amplified ending in which the elderly hero chooses a life a monastic retreat. I wish to address one of Schmidt's criticisms of Aiolfo: the complete reduction of the nationalistic theme in favor of the family. Despite two episodes in which individual heroes save the life of the French king, their loyalties clearly belong first to their own house and lineage. The old antipathy between Christian armies and Saracen invaders that informs the chanson de geste genre is here transmuted into an intense and deadly rivalry between two families: Aiolfo's house, which loyally supports Charlemagne and his successors, and the Maganzesi pretenders to the throne.6

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 51 The rivalry between various Paladins and the Maganzese traitors was a favorite element in the Italian adaptations of Old French material. Although the traitor Makaire of Mayence had already figured in Aiol (Bendinelli 9n) and in Franco-Italian literature (e.g., Geste 637-744), maestro Andrea creates a new generation of descendents of Gano as well as additional episodes of Maganzese plotting and treachery. Besides numerous ambushes, such episodes include their kidnapping of Fiordalisa, the new bride of one of Aiolfo's cousins, and the alliance of Maccario with the Tatar army. The gradual merging of the epic and romance genres in chivalric literature mirrors the newer emphasis on familial loyalties over the older, feudal loyalties to king and country. Since feudalism according to the French or English model never really took root in Italy, it is reasonable to expect that late medieval Italian reworkings of chansons de geste would reflect the social and political realties of the peninsula. One definition of the difference between epic and romance is that in the former, group thinking prevails whereas in the latter, individual actions predominate. The fusion of individual duty to, or action on behalf of, a group (the clan or dynasty) within the narrative thus parallels the conflation of genres. As political and social paradigms changed, so did their corresponding literary representations. Schmidt identified certain characters in Aiolfo that were invented by maestro Andrea or borrowed from Italian romanzi: Verrucchiere (113), Mirabello (114-16), Bosolino di Gualfreda (116-17, 154), Borcut (117) and Farlet (117-18). According to Schmidt, the personal attributes, psychological depth and passions of these characters as well as their adherence to concepts such as shrewdness (farbizia) and vendetta are unlike those found in Old French epic and mark them as later Italian inventions. Direct translations of names—Aiol-Aiolfo, Elie-Elia, Loeys-Aluigi, Lusiane-Luziana—testify to the French origins of this narrative, although they do not necessarily prove that the extant Aiol was the direct model maestro Andrea used. Other names of major French characters introduced into the Italian version are more

21.1-2 52 Gloria Allaire perplexing: Mirabel becomes Lionida, Isabel becomes Lisabetta and the horse Marchegai becomes Marzagaglia. The etymologi- cally inexplicable doublet for Aiolfo's wife strongly suggests that maestro Andrea knew alternate versions of the story and sought to merge them as seemlessly as possible with the following verisimilar explanation: "Mirabella" was the name taken by Lionida at the time of her baptism in Paris when the King Aluigi accidentally saw her naked and exclaimed, "Par nostre Dame de Paris ... je non vi oncques mais plus mirable dame" (1:139-40). This variation, reminiscent of Susanna and the Elders, is not found in the baptism scene in Aiol. In his other works, maestro Andrea frequently reconciles variant textual traditions by supplying similar explanations, often based on etymologies. He feels compelled to faithfully utilize all the material that he has found, but is also constrained to make sense out of discrepancies in order to unify not only individual texts, but his entire cycle. Maestro Andrea's consistent narrative approach is informed both by his morality and by his world view. For instance, despite creating a charming recognition scene in a locus amoenus, he very carefully insists on Aiolfo's and Lionida/ Mirabella's pre-marital chastity:

Ajolfo per la fatica dell'arme s'addormentò colla testa nel grembo di Lionida: ed ella li acconciava e' suoi biondi capegli, e diceva ch'ell'era la più contenta damigella del mondo . . . . E giurolle Ajolfo di nolla toccare di peccato, se prima nolla sposasse, e faciessila battezzare. (1:94).

(Aiolfo, being worn out from fighting, fell asleep with his head in Lionida's lap: and she arranged his blonde hair, saying that she was the happiest damsel in the world .... And Aiolfo swore to her that he would not touch her carnally if he did not first wed her, and have her baptized.)

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 53 Similarly, the hero Bosolino vows not to sleep with his betrothed Chiarita until they have returned to France where their marriage will be properly celebrated (1:244-45). This was in accordance with the strict norms of Andrea's society that demanded immaculate blood lines and documentable lineages not only for the honor of the individual family, but to ensure participation in the government of the pre-Medici Republic.7 The events leading up to the couple's arrival in Paris and eventual wedding ceremony are quite different in the Italian reworking from those of the French text. Only the most general plot elements are recognizable: in both narratives, the couple flees through endless woods and wilderness, confronted by opponents whom the hero must defeat: various robbers in Aiol, but Mirabella's male kin in Aiolfo, and giant serpents in both. The settings differ dramatically: in Aiol these adventures take place along the pilgrim route to Compostela, but in Aiolfo the action is near the Black Sea. In the first part of Aiolfo, the number of combats has been much reduced while the romantic elements have been amplified and emphasized. Lacking more textual evidence, we cannot definitively attribute all such innovations in Aiolfo to maestro Andrea. The scant comparative criticism (Normand and Raynaud, Del Prete, Schmidt) that exists for Aiol-Aiolfo rests on the assumption that the French Aiol was indeed the source that maestro Andrea used. In fact, as Maria Bendinelli has pointed out, it is more probable that Aiolfo owes much to the intervention of northern Italian or perhaps even other Tuscan reworkings which were composed and circulated in the period of over a century between the composition of the extant Aiol and that of Aiolfo. Reliance on earlier Italian reworkings for which manuscript evidence survives has been identified in maestro Andrea's other texts such as I Reali di Francia, Ugone d'Avernia and Aspramonte (Bendinelli 9-13). Although clearly recognizable Italian sources for Aiolfo have not survived or have not been rediscovered, the larger number of characters and episodes in Aiolfo as opposed to Aiol suggests the use of additional source material. According to the index of

21.1-2 54 Gloria Allaire proper names in Aiol, there are approximately 170 names of individual characters, including biblical figures, saints, gods, ethnic groups and horses. However, in Aiolfo some 350 individual characters participate in the action, and references to biblical figures and saints are minimal. Moreover, the low correspon- dence of proper names in Aiolfo with respect to Aiol also suggests that Aiol was not a direct model. On the other hand, the Italianization of names that do appear in Aiol (major characters), the abundance of minor characters with purely Italian names (often not directly translatable) and name changes suggests once again the effect of mediating northern Italian texts. Whether maestro Andrea relied on French or Franco- Italian models, the resultant product Aiolfo must be examined according to its own aesthetic, one that is grounded in the ethos of late medieval Florence. The importance of kinship in Florence cannot be overstated. Its various aspects have been studied in depth by historians such as Lauro Martines, Dale Kent, Anthony Molho and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber. As the newly rich merchants attempted to enhance their social status and win a voice in government, they turned to the old aristocracy for the rituals and trappings of knightly dignity. The need to establish and document lineage—at once formalistic and pragmatic— produced an obsession with genealogy that grew throughout the fourteenth century. Lauro Martines has noted that "in pre- Laurentian Florence the esteem for antiquity of family stock was already a major ingredient in the formation of a new class consciousness" (57). In fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Florence, this is seen in the need for keeping genealogical records in the parish or in private ricordi, the passion for family tombs and the invention and application of armorial bearings (Martines 57; Klapisch-Zuber, "Kinship," 222).8 In addition, Anthony Molho has indicated the "profound transformations experienced by the family in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries" (3). Although the noble families of earlier centuries had been patrilinearly linked into clans, the crisis undergone by the Florentine family in the post-plague years paved the way for a horizontal extension of

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 55 solidarity to relatives of one's own generation (Molho 4). Dale Kent has shown how kinship groups created by intermarriages within the élite families could be augmented by neighbors and clients in a network referred to variously as the parentela, parentado, casa or consorteria. Individuals could at that point be bound above and below, horizontally and vertically, not only by descent, but by marriage, dowries and other reciprocal obligations. These relationships stretched beyond the private and into the public sphere. The importance of these networks casts doubt on the Burckhardtian notion of emerging Renaissance individualism that influenced Schmidt's interpretation of Aiolfo. For medieval Florentines, as for their ancient Roman counterparts, shared blood was an almost magical, physical- moral force (Bestor 160). Leon Battista Alberti expressed the importance of kinship in his treatise, Delia Famiglia (The Family), completed in 1437: "[g]ood kinsmen are a more reliable advantage than good fortune . . . . Wealth is a fleeting and perishable thing, while kinsmen . . . remain kinsmen forever" (Watkins trans. 119). Family mediated between society and individual in a "system of 'tribal' honor and guilt" (Martines 52- 53). An individual could gain respect and prestige because of his family, but could also bring his family into disgrace or be persecuted due to actions of his relatives (Martines 52-53; Klapisch-Zuber, "Kinship" 221). There were also cases in which family members who were internally divided on certain issues would close ranks to fight against or wreak vengeance upon a common enemy (Klapisch-Zuber, "Kinship" 221-22). This is reflected in Aiolfo where the renegade Guido da Bagotte returns to the fold in order to join the fight against the Maganzesi. Any reading of Aiolfo must be informed by this new emphasis on family alliances over larger political ones. The old enmity between Christian and Saracen, a commonplace of chansons de geste, is here nearly effaced. The national or ethnic struggle has descended to the level of kinship, and the feudal alliance lord:vassal is now replaced by the familial hierarchy father:son. The eternal hatred between the Mayence and the

21.1-2 56 Gloria Allaire relations of Charlemagne is foregrounded here precisely to examine and illustrate how kinship influences an individual's actions.9 This is the glue that binds the apparently rambling narrative of Aiolfo.10 The network of kinship ties that unifies the narration of Aiolfo is part of a larger structuring device used deliberately by maestro Andrea: genealogy forms the infrastructure of his entire epic cycle.11 Already in I Reali di Francia, maestro Andrea consciously strove to create a multigenerational narrative fabric, woven together with vertical lines of succession and horizontal marriages between houses. In this, he was probably influenced by Marciana ms. V 13 or a similar Franco-Italian compilation that grafted the lineage of various epic heroes onto the royal family of France (Paris 364). Maestro Andrea's intricate design can be charted with impressive results: Reali concludes with a lengthy genealogical chapter, possibly a late authorial addition, that describes the various dynasties of the text's protagonists (564 68). In Aiolfo alone six generations are represented. In his new, detailed genealogy, maestro Andrea claims ancient roots for Aiolfo's family: his Elia is not the son of Giuliano di Provenza as he is in Aiol, but of Guido, conte di Campagna di Roma, a descendent of Scipio Africanus (1:38, 41, 56, 2:187, 276). The divergences between characters and genealogies in Aiol and Aiolfo, already noted by editor Leone Del Prete, suggest once again that maestro Andrea did more than just translate a single source (Storia di Ajolfo xxii).12 In post-plague Florence, the depleted population presented a real crisis. The need for young males to marry in order to produce heirs was an important part of the social agenda for many decades. Its urgency was well articulated by Alberti:

If a family is not to fall . . . into what we have described as the most unfortunate condition of decline, but is to grow, instead, in fame and in the prosperous multitude of its youth, we must persuade our young men to take wives. We must use every argument for this purpose, offer incentive, promise reward, employ all our wit, persistence, and cunning. (Watkins trans. 112)

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 57 This urgent need to procreate for the good of the clan saturates the narrative fabric of Aiolfo, a text which was written in precisely those decades. The constant need to continue one hero's lineage is balanced by attempts to exterminate the opposing line. Virtually all the heroes marry and sire offspring: Aiolfo with Lionida, a high ranking Saracen; Bosolino with Chiarita, a Saracen princess; Gottebouf with Fiordalisa; Aiolfo's sons Verrucchiere and Marmondino with Filistena and Brigania, respectively; and his grandson Aiolfino with Elisetta. And there are many more! This multigenerationality functions for various families, famous and infamous, major and minor, Christian and Saracen: the royal French line is represented by Carlomagno (Charlemagne) who sires Aluigi (Louis) who in turn sires Carlo Martello (Charles Martel; this according to the narrative tradition, not historical fact). Four generations of the hero's family are represented: Elia, son Aiolfo, grandsons Verrucchiere and Mirabello, and great-grandsons Lionigi, Aiolfino, Elia and Lionello. The treachery begun by Gano di Maganza is continued by his son Grifonetto and grandsons Maganzino, Fiamico and Pinabello. Minor houses, both Christian and Saracen, are represented as well: Gottebouf di Frigia's son is Gordion and his grandson is Gottebouf. The Old Man of the Mountain of the Muslim assassins legend here has ten sons. Maestro Andrea frequently identifies characters by their lineage rather than by epithets referring to their individual prowess or characteristics (Allaire, Andrea da Barberino 72 73). The name value of famous casate (houses) is a great assistance to the reader familiar with older epics in identifying newly invented, minor characters with a more recent narrative pedigree, as in this passage: "... n'andó alla città d'Alba, dov'era signore Maganzino, figliuolo del conte Grifonetto, che fu figliuolo di Gano ..." (Ajolfo 1:107). ("He went to the city of Alba, where Maganzino, son of count Grifonetto, who was the son of Gano, was lord.")13 Here, the otherwise unknown "Lord Maganzino" is immediately identifiable as a grandson of the traitor of Roncisvalles. Similarly, in an ambush scene, a minor perpetrator assumes more menacing

21.1-2 58 Gloria Allaire proportions when his connection to Gano is established: "un Conte di Maganza, ch'avea nome el conte Asalon, cugino che fue di Gano, figliuolo del conte Manfredi" (1:125). ("A count of Maganza named Count Asalon, who was Gano's cousin, and Count Manfredi's son.") The younger generation of heroes figures prominently as a target for extermination: early on, the Maganzesi assassinate Ugolino, but his son Bosolino escapes. Later, the Maganzesi who captured Aiolfo and his young wife are more concerned with trying to drown their newborn twin sons than with killing the parents.14 As the new generation of knights begins to participate in the action, an older knight reviews their lineage, thus grounding their every deed in a loyalty to kin:

Elia . .. gli disse: Figliuolo, el conte Ugolino di Gualfedra avea uno figliuolo del tempo tuo ... e avea nome Bosolino. Donde t'avviso del suo nome, ch'egli è tuo cugino dal lato di femina, perchè el conte Ugolino ed io fumo [sic] figliuoli di due sorelle. El conte Ugolino fue figliuolo d'Ansuigi di Chiaramonte, che fu figliuolo di Girardo da Rossiglione: ma noi ci amavamo più che se noi fossimo stati fratelli carnali. (1:6-7)

(Elia told him: "Son, count Ugolino of Gualfreda had a son of your age . . . and he was called Bosolino. There- fore I advise you of his name, for he is your maternal cousin, because count Ugolino and I were the sons of two sisters. Count Ugolino was the son of Ansuigi of Chiaramonte who was son of Girardo da Rossiglione, but we loved each other more than if we had been actual brothers.")

"Voi sapete che '1 padre vostro onorò el mio fratello di Signoria, e degniò, per la sua grazia, di dare la vostra sorella per moglie al mio fratello, conoscendo chi era el nostro sangue, el quale si chiama gli Scipioni di Roma." (1:41)

("You know that your father honored my brother with a seigniory and deigned, by his grace, to give your sister in marriage to my brother, knowing of what blood we were, that of the Scipios of Rome.")

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 59 Another important theme in Aiolfo directly related to that of kinship concerns the younger generation (or horizontally related characters) taking up a persecuted relative's cause. Under this rubric, the eponymous hero assumes a triply redemptive role: 1) he defeats the renegade Guido da Bagotte and brings him back to Christianity (1:37-40); 2) he restores his exiled parents to their proper position as landowning nobles (1:49); and 3) he reconciles his exiled relatives Germía and brothers with King Aluigi (1:138). The quest motif, usually associated with the solitary knight errant of romance, here has both individual and corporate manifestations. In each case, the quest motif is linked to kinship. After Aiolfo is sold into slavery in the East, various relatives instigate individual quests to find him. Corporate quests occur when several relatives unite to exact vengeance for a killing or crime against one of their kin.15 Thus, Ulion di Scondia, an ally of the Maganzesi, reprimands them for wanting to give up a battle before he had achieved vengeance for his son, his brother and two nephews just killed by Aiolfo's men (1:157). Later, the giant Balfasar and two of his cousins come to vindicate the deaths of Scalabrun and Salonibrun (1:195). A spectacular example of corporate quest is when an entire family unites in its plea to King Aluigi to avenge the Maganzese for hanging Tancredi:

|L]o domandò el Re come stava el fatto della morte di Tancredi. Germía disse come Rinieri [di Maganza], sanza sfidamento, avea corso e rubato tutto el suo paese, e come Tancredi e Borcut 1'avieno sconfitto, e come el suo figliuolo 1'avea fatto morire,... [ "]ed io ebbi le novelle come egli era morto.["] E mentre che Germía diceva queste novelle piangeva, sicchè ognuno facea piagnere. El Re lo conforta alla vendetta; e tutti giurarono la vendetta . . . . Sendo el Re a tavola, venne la Duchessa dinanzi al Re a fare lamento del suo figliuolo: e Fiordalis domandava, piangendo, vendetta del suo cogniato e ajuto al suo padre e soccorso al suo marito .... (1:153)

21.1-2 60 Gloria Allaire

(The King asked what was happening with regard to Tancredi's death. Germía told how Rinieri of Maganza, without provocation, had raided and pillaged his whole land, and how Tancredi and Borcut had defeated him, and how he had killed his son,.. . "and I had notice of how he died." And while Germía was recounting this news he was weeping, so that he made everyone weep. The King comforted him, encouraging him to take vengeance; and everyone swore the vendetta.... While the King was at table, the Duchess came before him to lament her son: and Fiordalis asked, weeping, vendetta for her brother-in-law and help for her father and succor for her husband .. ..)

Great drama and pathos ensue in scenes in which relatives unknowingly fight one another or in which parallel kinship groups fight. Such episodes were an established didactic motif in French chansons de geste (Obergfell, "Father-Son Combat"), and as a literary convention would have been known to maestro Andrea; thus he cannot rightly be said to have invented this motif.16 An example of the latter type in Aiolfo is when two evenly matched groups from opposing families fight after an ambush: Maganzese partisan Tabor and his two sons, Alorino and Angiolier, versus Germía and his own two sons, Riccardo and Daramis. There are numerous examples of the first type, in which one or both knights are incognito. For example, the young hero Aiolfo, newly arrived in Paris, fights incognito under the name "Valletto Straniero." In one episode, Paris is besieged by Aiolfo's rebel uncle Guido di Bagotte. Aiolfo defends the king and the city, killing his two cousins, the sons of Guido, in the process. Although shedding the blood of kinsmen is a reprehensible act (condemned in the lowest circle of Hell, for example, in Dante's Comedy, Inf. 32), here Andrea justifies the deed:

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 61

[S]e Ajolfo avesse conosciuto e' sua cugini, non era tanto male: ma forse, per lo peccato di Guido di Bagotte, fue promessione di Dio, per lo dispregio che avea fatto contro alla fede di Cristo. (1:35-36 and note)

(If Aiolfo had recognized his cousins, it wouldn't have been so bad: but perhaps, because of Guido di Bagotte's sin, it was God's will, due to the wrong that [Guido] had committed against the faith of Christ.)

There is a complex tension here between duty to king or to family, between duty to God or to country, between upholding or violating the bonds of kinship. On the surface, Aiolfo's killing of his cousins appears a great tragedy ("Ah ria fortuna per Guido!" [35]) and would seem to leave him with the guilty blood of family members on his hands. However, Guido's own earlier renunciation of his duties to God, country and family bring down vengeance upon his house. Even though Guido, and not his sons, had renounced the Christian faith, they support their father's military actions as good sons should. Yet by the same token, the sons have assumed the responsibility for their father's nefarious act and therefore also deserve God's punishment. In the next chapter, the disguised Aiolfo fights and defeats his rebellious uncle Guido di Bagotte (1:38-39). When Guido sees Aiolfo's unvisored face, he seems to see his brother Elia. The family resemblance combined with his desperation at the loss of both sons reawakens his sympathies for his kin and softens his heart to the point of weeping. He immediately makes a noble speech asking the king's forgiveness and returns to the Christian faith. In another episode filled with familial intricacies, Aiolfo fights both his sons and a cousin. All three are in the Alfamir's army at the siege of Trebizond and are fighting under aliases. The first encounter, between Aiolfo and his son Verrucchiere, falls under the rubric of the "traditional opposition between youth and age"

21.1-2 62 Gloria Allaire as well as of the opposition between Muslim and Christian faiths (Obergfell, "Father-Son Combat" 335). Verruchiere claims to be the son-in-law of the Alfamir and even salutes his opponent Aiolfo "on the part of Mohammed" (2:50). Although both are evenly matched, Verrucchiere is no Oedipus: he is taken prisoner after his father severely wounds his sword hand. Aiolfo next fights his (second) cousin Bosolino (2:58). Since they are of the same generation, the youth/age paradigm does not apply here. Also, even though Bosolino is fighting under an alias, he, like Aiolfo, calls on Christ to help him in battle. The double bond of kinship and religion between the combattants creates much pathos in the episode. Furthermore, there is a certain suspense in all these encounters because Aiolfo believes that his opponents and relatives had been killed in their infancy. By chance, Bosolino calls out duke Elia's name in an apostrophe, allowing Aiolfo to identify him as a relative. In an interesting plot twist, Aiolfo tells Bosolino to feign being knocked out and Aiolfo carries him back as "prisoner" to the city and the Christian forces. Finally, Aiolfo fights his other son Mirabello, also disguised and under an alias (2:62 64). Once again, the youth/age theme returns as both are evenly matched in a fierce fight. At one point, they chivalrously agree to uncover their faces, thereby making possible a recognition scene. Mirabello offers Aiolfo his sword in sign of surrender, but Aiolfo returns it and they ride to the city together. The diegetic significance of these three combats between relatives is that the Turks loses This parallels fierce rivalries between families as found in French epics such as Garin le Loherain and Raoul de Cambrai. Statistics for the period show a "nearly negligible proportion of three mighty champions to the Christians, which turns the tide of battle." Peace is made when Aiolfo asks that the Alfamir's daughter be given as wife to Verrucchiere. Throughout the entire episode, bonds of kinship are stronger than religious or political enmity. Non-agnatic bonds exist as well. By the late fourteenth- century in Florence, maternal relations counted in cementing parentela, a historical practice reflected in Aiolfo: 1) Elizia, sister

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 63 of King Aluigi, tries to save her husband Elia from banishment; 2) Duchess Elisabetta, Aiolfo's aunt, is the ranking family member at court and Elia defers parental authority over Aiolfo to her; both Elia and Elisabetta tell Aiolfo to trust only her and come to her for instructions; 3) cousins are described more than once as sons of two sisters (1:7, 2:59, cited above; 2:127,128). A Saracen warrior named Alifac is described as "un fratello d'Agurnia per madre"—a half-brother of Agurnia by the mother (2: 281). The hero's aunts were already featured in Aiol, and this increased importance of female characters' roles with respect to earlier chansons de geste suggest another reason why the story would have appealed to maestro Andrea and his readers. Bastards also figure strongly in the casata, having all the rights and duties of fully legitimate sons: in Aiolfo, one villain is explicitly called "the Bastard of Maganza" (2:104).17 In addition to blood ties, allegiances can be sworn: Bosolino and Rubinas are sworn brothers (2:8), as are Verrucchiere and Anticor (Bosolino's alias). Ironically, the latter pair are actually third cousins, but have not yet discovered their true identities. Shifts of allegiance can also occur by free choice: in this scenario, certain characters, normally Saracen, decide to forsake their own relatives and ally themselves with a Christian. When the eloping Lionida is pursued by her brother, she chooses amorous love for Aiolfo over fraternal love (1:95); and the giants Tornabuc and Borgut swear to support Aiolfo against their own Saracen king (1:95). This cursory presentation has by no means exhausted the intricacies of the kinship thematic found in this lengthy epic romance. In Aiolfo, genealogy and kinship, both grounded in contemporary social concerns, function on many levels to provide structural coherence and narrative unity, to motivate the actions of individual characters and to propel the various adventures forward. The complex network of relations which existed in late medieval Florentine politics and society is overlaid on the traditional narrative animosity between supporters of Carlomagno and the invidious Maganzesi. Verisimilar family

21.1-2 64 Gloria Allaire for the heroes and villains alike pique the reader's interest and create an engaging narrative depth. Heroes are no longer individualistic champions or errant knights, but are dependent on their relatives—both male and female—and cohorts to save and defend them. More intricacies await elucidation such as the examples of both exogamic and endogamic marriages, depending on to which degree one calculates "cousins." The precise correspondence between Andrea da Barberino's thematic choices and the historical and cultural realities of his society reveal a well-defined narrative strategy at work and make possible a more enlightened, contextualized reading of this innovative Italian text.

NOTES

1. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 30th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, May 6,1995.

2. La Bataille Loquifer and, to a lesser degree, Huon de Bordeaux, are noteworthy examples of the early hybridization of battle epic and Arthurian romance.

3. Eleven manuscripts of Aiolfo survive, not all known to its nineteenth- century editor: Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana, mss. Ashb. 537; Plut. XLIII,9; Plut. LXI,34; Plut. LXII,27; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, mss. Magl. XXIV,146bis; II.II.54; Biblioteca Riccardiana, mss. 1812, 1909, 1912; Accademia della Crusca, ms. 64; Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, Pal. 35. See Allaire, "Un codice" and "Unknown Exemplars." Although the prose version by Andrea da Barberino was not published until 1863—64, there are three known Italian editions of an anonymous ottava rima version (in 12 cantos), each entitled Aiolpho del Barbicone: Venice: Marchio Sessa, 1516; Milan: Rocho et fratello da Valle, for Niccolò da Gorgonzola, 1518; Milan: Gothardo da Ponte, for J. Jacobo et fratelli da Legnano, 1519.

Olifant Genealogy & Kinship 65

4. Various scholars beginning with Léon Gautier have noted the increased role played by female characters in chansons de geste of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, evidence too numerous to rehearse here.

5. Among the references to the reader are: Storie Nerbonesi 1:140, 322, 350; 2:165, 412, 527, 686; Storia diAjolfo 2:13, 29; Guerrino Meschino ff. 46v. 79v, 93r (twice). Examples of references to listeners: Reali 433, 509.

6. This parallels fierce rivalries between families as found in French epics such as Garin le Loherain and Raoul de Cambrai.

7. Statistics for the period show a "nearly negligible proportion of first births in Florentine families occurring before the eighth month after the marriage," clear evidence of the societal restrictions on pre-marital sex (Klapisch-Zuber, "Women and the Family," 298).

8. Klapisch-Zuber has published a facsimile of a detailed, handwritten Tornaquinci genealogy from c. 1376 (La famiglia 35).

9. This places a new spin on the Christian brand of didacticism found in Aiol: the lessons to be derived from Aiolfo are more pragmatic and offer "exempla" of useful social and political behaviors.

10. The lack of Aristotelean unity so typical of romance can be seen in the title Del Prete invented for his edition: Storia di Ajolfo del Barbicone e di altri valorosi cavalieri.

11. Pio Rajna sought to account for the extensive use of genealogies on the part of Italian authors (as compared to their French counterparts) with an explanation based on reception theory: Italian listeners and readers had a greater need to make sense of the "guazzabuglio" (hodge- podge) of texts they had inherited than did the French audiences to whom this material was indigenous (Ricerche 266).

12.1 prefer the spelling Aiolfo to the archaic variant Del Prete selected for his title. Spellings oscillate within and between manuscript exemplars. For comparative family trees, see Moisan 5:964.

21.1-2 66 Gloria Allaire 13. All English translations from Aiolfo are my own.

14. Earlier in the same episode, Maccario tells Aiolfo that he is worth less as a prisoner than his pregnant wife who carries the future of his lineage ("Ell'è gravida, i' ò più caro lei che te" [Ajolfo 1:170]). Manuscripts vary in the spelling of the character's name; this article follows each text rather than standardizing.

15. The noun vendetta occurs nineteen times in Aiolfo, and the related verb vendicare five times.

16. The father-son combat is also an established motif in "family romance." See, for example, Marie de France's "Milun" and Richars li biaus.

17. For the social position of bastards and their mothers in northern Italian courts c. 1350-1485, see Ettlinger. However, her findings are not strictly analogous to the situation in Florence.

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Allaire, Gloria. Andrea da Barberino and the Language of Chivalry. Gainesville, FL: UP of Florida, 1997.

—. "Un codice ritrovato della Storia d'Aiolfo del Barbicone di Andrea da Barberino." Lettere Italiane 45 (1993): 398-401.

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—. "Unknown Exemplars of Andrea da Barberino in the Ashburnham Collection of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana." Scriptorium 48.1 (1994): 151-58.

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Russo, Luigi. Storia della letteratura italiana. 2 vols. Firenze: Sansoni, 1956. Vol. 1.

Schmidt, Barbara. "Ein Vergleich zwischen der Chanson de geste von Aiol et Mirabel und der italienischen Prosabearbeitung La storia di Ajolfo del Barbicone." Diss. Humboldt Universität, Berlin, 1949.

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