AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE SEXTET: SIX TALES IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT Lauro Martines Translated by Murtha Baca This collection of six tales offers enticing views into the history of Renaissance Italy, with fiction and fictional modes becoming gate- ways to a real, historical world. All written between 1400 and 1500—among them a rare gem by Lorenzo the Magnificent and a famous account featuring Filippo Brunelleschi—the stories are presented here in lively translations. As engaging and high-spirited as those in Boccaccio's De- cameron, the tales deal with marriage, deception, rural manners, gender relations, social ambitions, adultery, homosexuality, and the demands of individual identity. Each is accompanied by an essay in which Lauro Martines situates the story in its temporal context, transforming it into an outright historical document. The stories and essays focus mainly on people from ihe ordinary and middling ranks of sociely, as ihey go aboul iheir daily lives, under the pres- sure of a highly practical, conformist, pleasure-loving (but often cruel) urban culture. A fascinating historical work with a combined anthropological, demographic, and cultural slant, this volume pro- vides unique insight into Italian Renaissance society. (The Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library) Lauro Martines, former Professor of European History, University of California, Los Angeles, has written extensively on the Italian Renaissance. He resides in London and is also the author of a recent novel, Loredana: A Venetian Tale. Murtha Baca is head of the Standards and Vocabulary Programs at the Getty Research Institute. THE LORENZO DA PONTE ITALIAN LIBRARY General Editors Luigi Ballerini and Massimo Ciavolella, University of California at Los Angeles Honorary Chairs Professor Vittore Branca Honorable Dino De Poli Honorable Anthony J. Scirica Advisory Board Remo Bodei, Universita di Pisa Lina Bolzoni, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Francesco Bruni, Universita di Venezia Giorgio Ficara, Universita di Torino Michael Heim, University of California at Los Angeles Amilcare A. lannucci, University of Toronto Rachel Jacoff, Wellesley College Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University Gilberto Pizzamiglio, Universita di Venezia Margaret Rosenthal, University of Southern California John Scott, University of Western Australia Elissa Weaver, University of Chicago 2 AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE SEXTET Six Tales in Historical Context by LAURO MARTINES Translations by Murtha Baca UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press and Lauro Martines 2004 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-8993-3 (cloth) ISBN 0-8020-8650-0 (paper) This book was first published by Marsilio Publishers in 1994. Printed on acid-free paper The Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library An Italian Renaissance sextet : six tales in historical context / by Lauro Martines ; translations by Murtha Baca. (Lorenzo da Ponte Italian Library) Translated from Italian. ISBN 0-8020-8993-3 1. Italian fiction — 15th century — Translations into English. 2. Short stories, Italian — Translations into English. I. Martines, Lauro II. Baca, Murtha III. Series. PQ4253.A44E5 2004 853'.0108 C2004-902096-X This volume is published under the aegis and with the financial assistance of: Fondazione Cassamarca, Treviso; Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Direzione Generale per la Promozione e la Cooperazione Culturale; Ministero per i Beni e le Attivila Cullurali, Direzione Generale per i Beni Librari e gli Istituti Culturali, Servizio per la promozione del libro e della lettura. Publication of this volume is assisted by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP)..