Genealogy and Kinship As Unifying Device in Andrea Da Barberino's La

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.

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