[306] In Ameto, ed. cit., p. 187, when Ibrida tells his story, he says his father was unworthy of such a mistress: "Ma il mio padre siccome indegno di tale sposa traendolo i fati, s' ingegnò d' annullare i fatti sacramenti, e le 'mpromesse convenzioni alla mia madre. Ma gli Iddii non curantisi di perdere la fede di sì vile uomo, con abbondante redine riserbando le loro vendette a giusto tempo, il lasciarono fare; e quello che la mia madre gli era si fece falsamente d' un altra nelle sue parti. La qual cosa non prima sentì la sventurata giovane, dal primo per isciagurata morte, e dal secondo per falsissima vita abbandonata, che i lungamente nascosi fuochi fatti palesi co' ricevuti inganni, chiuse gli occhi e del mondo a lei mal fortunoso, si rendè agli Iddii. Ma Giunone nè Imeneo non porsero alcuno consentimento a' secondi fatti, benchè chiamati vi fossero; anzi esecrando la adultera giovane con lo 'ngannevole uomo, e verso loro con giuste ire accendendosi, prima privatolo di gran parte de' beni ricevuti da lei, e dispostolo a maggiore ruina a morte la datrice, la data e la ricevuta progenie dannarono con infallibile sentenzia, visitando con nuovi danni chi a tali effetti porse alcuna cagione." Cf. also Ameto, ed. cit., p. 252 et seq., and Fiammetta, ed. cit., cap. ii. p. 42.

[307] On the different houses of Boccaccino in Florence, see an unpublished MS. by Gherardi, La Villeggiatura di Maiano, which I believe to be in the Florentine archives. A copy is in the possession of Mrs. Ross, of Poggio Gherardo, near Florence. From this copy I give cap. iv. of the MS. in Appendix III.

[308] Ameto, ed. cit., p. 254.

[309] Fiammetta, ed. cit., cap. v. p. 63: "Quando di più d' un mese essendo il promesso tempo passato."

[310] Ibid., p. 64. Fiammetta asks: "How long ago had you news of him?" "It is about fifteen days," says the merchant, "since I left Florence." "And how was he then?" "Very well; and the same day that I set out, newly entered his house a beautiful young woman who, as I heard, had just married him."

[311] Cf. Baldelli, op. cit., p. 276, n. 1: "26 Januarii, 1349 [i.e. 1350 according to our reckoning]. Dominus Ioannes quondam Boccacci, populi Sanctæ Felicitatis, tutor Iacobi pupilli ejus fratris, et filii quondam et heredis Dominiæ Bicis olim matris suæ, et uxoris q. dicti Boccaccii et filiæ q. Ubaldini Nepi de Bosticcis." This document, which gives us the name of Boccaccino's second wife, tells us also that Giovanni was his brother's guardian and governor in January, 1350. Crescini had already suggested (op. cit., p. 102 n.), following Baldelli, that the Lia of the Ameto was a Baroncelli when Sanesi (Un documento inedito su Giovanni Boccaccio in Rassegna Bibliografica della Lett. Ital. (Pisa, 1893), An. I, No. 4, p. 120 et seq.) proved it to be so, giving a genealogical table:—

Gherardo Baroncelli
|
Donna Love = Baldino di Nepo de' Bostichi
|
——————
|                      |
Gherardo            Bice = Boccaccino
|
Jacopo

[312] Cf. Crescini, op. cit., p. 155, note 3. Arch. Stat. Fior. (Archivio della Grascia Prammatica del 1343): "1343. die Maij Domina Bice uxor Boccaccij de Certaldo populi S. Felicitatis habet guarnaccham de camecha coloris purpurini," etc.

[313] See Appendix III, MS. of Gherardi.

[314] See supra, n. 1.

[315] Boccaccino still possessed the house in popolo di S. Felicità when he died. See supra, p. 98, n. 3.

[316] It must be remembered that in 1343 Giovanni was thirty years old.

[317] Cf. Fiammetta, ed. cit., cap. ii. p. 45, already quoted supra, p. 96, note 1.

[318] Gio. Villani, Lib. XI, cap. 137.

[319] See the De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, Lib. IX, cap. 24; cf. Hortis, Studi, etc., pp. 127-8. A translation in verse of the De Casibus was made by Lydgate, The Fall of Princes, first printed by Pynson in 1494; later editions, 1527, 1554 (Tottel), and John Wayland's, 1558. There is no modern edition. It is a disgrace to our two universities that no modern edition of Lydgate has been published.

[320] Cf. W. Heywood, Palio and Ponte (Methuen, 1904), pp. 7-9. These races or palii seem to have originated in the thirteenth century (cf. Villani, Cronica, Lib. I, cap. 60, and Dante, Paradiso, xvi 40-2). Benvenuto da Imola says, "Est de more Florentiæ, quod singulis annis in festo Iohannis Baptistæ currant equi ad brevium in signum festivæ laetitiæ..." He goes on to say that the race was run from S. Pancrazio, the western ward of the city, through the Mercato Vecchio, to the eastern ward of S. Piero. Goro di Stazio Dati, who died in 1435, thus describes the palio of S. John in Florence. I quote Mr Heywood's excellent redaction from Dati's Storia di Firenze (Florence, 1735), pp. 84-9, in his Palio and Ponte, u s "... Thereafter, dinner being over, and midday being past, and the folk having rested awhile according to the pleasure of each of them; all the women and girls betake themselves whither the horses which run the palio will pass. Now these pass through a straight street, through the midst of the city, where are many dwellings, beautiful, sumptuous houses of good citizens, more than in any other part thereof. And from one end of the city to the other, in that straight street which is full of flowers, are all the women and all the jewels and rich adornments of the city; and it is a great holiday. Also there are always many lords and knights and foreign gentlemen, who come every year from the surrounding towns to see the beauty and magnificence of that festival. And there, through the said Corso, are so many folk that it seemeth a thing incredible, the like whereof he who hath not seen it could neither believe nor imagine. Thereafter, the great bell of the Palagio de' Signori is tolled three times, and the horses, ready for the start, come forth to run. On high upon the tower, may be seen, by the signs made by the boys who are up there, that is of such an one and that of such an one (quello è del tale, e quello è del tale). And all the most excellent race-horses of the world are there, gathered together from all the borders of Italy. And that one which is the first to reach the Palio is the one which winneth it. Now the Palio is borne aloft upon a triumphal car, with four wheels, adorned with four carven lions which seem alive, one upon every side of the car, drawn by two horses, with housings with the emblem of the Commune thereon, and ridden by two varlets which guide them. The same is a passing rich and great Palio of fine crimson velvet in two palii, and between the one and the other a band of fine gold a palm's width, lined with fur from the belly of the ermine and bordered with miniver fringed with silk and fine gold; which, in all, costeth three hundred florins or more.... All the great piazza of S. Giovanni and part of the street is covered with blue hangings with yellow lilies; the church is a thing of marvellous form, whereof I shall speak at another time...." Boccaccio must often have seen these races. Cf. Decameron, Day VI, Nov. 3.

[321] Lydgate, op. cit., Lib. IX.

[322] We do not know when, if at all at this time, Boccaccio returned to Naples. The only testimony by which Baldelli, Witte, and Koerting hold that he was in Naples in 1345 is the passage in the De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, Lib. IX, cap. 25, where he narrates, as though he had been present on the occasion, the terrible end of Philippa la Catanese (see infra). Witte, however, wishes to support this evidence by an interpretation of certain words in the letter to Zanobi, Longum tempus effluxit (see Corrazini, op. cit., p. 33). Hortis, Gaspary, and Hauvette, however, assert that in the De Casibus, u.s., Boccaccio does not actually say he was present on the occasion mentioned, but only says, quæ fere vidi, while the passage in the letter to Zanobi, they say, refers to Acciaiuoli. Lastly, Hecker observes that the words of Boccaccio seem to prove that he was in Naples in 1345. In fact, speaking of the condemnation and torture of the Catanese as accomplice in the assassination of King Andrew he says: "quædam auribus, quædam oculis sumpta meis describam."

[323] See Arch. St. per la prov. Nap., An. V, p. 617. For an excellent account of King Robert's reign, as of Giovanna's, see Baddeley, King Robert the Wise and His Heirs (Heinemann, 1881). It is a good defence of the Queen.

[324] Gio. Villani, who did not love the Angevins, tells us that King Robert was full of every virtue, admitting, however, that in his last years he was very avaricious; and in this he agrees with Boccaccio. He says, however, that he was the wisest monarch of Christendom after Charlemagne. Boccaccio too calls him Solomon. In a poem attributed to Convenevole da Prato he is hailed as the sovereign of United Italy. But it is to Petrarch he owes his fame. Robert was a great patron of the Franciscans, then utterly rotten. Boccaccio doubtless saw enough in Naples to give him justification for his stories later. See infra.

[325] Petrarch, Egloga, II.

[327] I quote Mr. Hollway-Calthrop's redaction in his Petrarch (Methuen, 1907), p. 112. He adds: "Knowing nothing of what he was to see, Petrarch was taken to a spectacle attended by the sovereigns in state; suddenly, to his horror, he saw a beautiful youth killed for pastime, expiring at his feet, and putting spurs to his horse, he fled at full gallop from the place." These gladiatorial games took place in Carbonara.

[328] Baddeley, op. cit.

[329] He received beside his board and lodging 19,000 florins of gold as salary. These were not paid by the Pope, whose servant he was, but by Queen Giovanna and the wretched Neapolitans. The amount was fixed by the Pope. Cf. Baddeley, op. cit.

[330] Cf. Baddeley, op. cit., p. 344. The Pope's account is as follows: "Immediately he was summoned by them he went into the gallery or promenade which is before the chamber. Then certain men placed their hands over his mouth so that he could not cry out, and in this act they so pressed their iron gauntlets that their print and character were manifest after death. Others placed a rope round his neck in order to strangle him, and this likewise left its mark; others 'vero receperunt eum pro genitalia, et adeo traxerunt, quod multi qui dicebant se vidisse retulerunt mihi quod transcendebant genua', while others tore out his hair, dragged him, and threw him into the garden. Some say with the rope with which they had strangled him they swung him as if hanging over the garden. It was further related to us that they intended to throw him into a well, and thereafter to give it out he had left the Kingdom ... and this would have been carried out had not his nurse quickly come upon the scene." Cf. Baluzius, Vitæ Paparum Avenonensium, 1305-94, Vol. II, p. 86, and Baddeley, op. cit., p. 344 et seq.

[331] e.g. another account states that "a conspiracy was formed against the young Andrew, and it is said, with some truth, that the Queen was the soul of it. One evening in September, 1345, the court being at the Castello of Aversa, a chamberlain entered the royal apartment, where Andrew was with the Queen, to announce to them that despatches of great importance were arrived from Naples. Andrew went out immediately, and as he passed through the salon which separated his room from the Queen's, he was seized and hanged from the window of the palace by a golden rope said to have been woven by the Queen's hands, and there he was left for two days. The Queen, who was, or pretended to be, stupefied with horror, returned to Naples. No real attempt, even at the behest of the Pope, was made to find the assassins." The Queen was within three months of the birth of her child when the murder occurred. She gained nothing by Andrew's death but exile. The murderers, so far as we can judge now, were undoubtedly the Catanese group in danger of losing their positions at court.

[332] Giovanna's own account is given in Baddeley, op. cit., p. 345, n. 2. Mr. Baddeley is her ablest English defender. See also a curious book by Amalfi, La Regina Giovanna nella Tradizione (Naples, 1892).

[333] See supra, p. 108, n. 1. All sorts of stories have been current as to Boccaccio's personal relations with Queen Giovanna. By some he is said to have been her lover, by others to have been in her debt for the suggestion of the scheme of the Decameron so far as it is merely a collection of merry tales. These tales he is supposed to have told her. No evidence is to be found for any of these assertions. But cf. Hortis, op. cit., p. 109 and n. 1.

[334] See Lett. 19 del Lib. XXIII, Epist. Familiarum. Fracassetti has translated this letter into Italian: see Lettere di Fr. Petrarca volgarizz. Delle Cose Fam., Vol. V, p. 91 et seq. Petrarch says: "Adriæ in litore, ea ferme ætate, qua tu ibi agebas cum antiquo plagæ illius domino eius avo qui nunc præsidet." It is Fracassetti who dates this letter 1365 (Baldelli dates in 1362, and Tiraboschi in 1367). If, as we believe, Fracassetti is right, then Boccaccio must have been in Ravenna in 1346, for in 1365 Guido da Polenta ruled there, the son of Bernardino who died in 1359, the son of Ostasio, who died November 14, 1346. Boccaccio had relations in Ravenna. In the proem to the De Genealogiis he tells us that Ostasio da Polenta induced him to translate Livy.

[335] Yet there may be something in it. Baldelli tells us that he wrote the Vita di Dante in 1351, and in 1349 we find him in communication with Petrarch. That Beatrice di Dante was in Ravenna in 1346 seems certain. Pelli, Memorie per servire alla vita di Dante (Firenze, 1823), p. 45, says: "As for the daughter Beatrice ... one knows that she took the habit of a religious in the convent of S. Stefano detto dell' Uliva in Ravenna." We know from a document seen by Pelli that in 1350 the Or San Michele Society sent Beatrice ten gold florins by the hand of Boccaccio. What I suggest is that Boccaccio found her in Ravenna in 1346 very poor. He represented the facts to the Or San Michele Society, who, after the Black Death of 1348, had plenty of money in consequence of all the legacies left them and, as is well known, were very free with their plenty.

I give the document Pelli saw as he quotes it. He says he found it in "un libro d' entrata ed uscita del 1350 tra gli altri esistenti nella cancelleria de' capitani di Or San Michele risposto nell' armadio alto di detta cancelleria." There, he says, is written the following disbursement in the month of September, 1350: "A Messer Giovanni di Bocchaccio ... fiorini dieci d' oro, perchè gli desse a suora Beatrice figliuola che fu di Dante Alleghieri, monaca nel monastero di S. Stefano dell' Uliva di Ravenna," etc. See also Bernicole in Giornale Dantesco, An. VII (Series III), Quaderno vii (Firenze, 1899), p. 337 et seq., who rediscovered the document which is republished by Biagi and Pesserini in Codice Diplomatico Dantesco, Disp. 5 (1900).

[336] Cf. Ferretus Vicentinus, Lib. VII, in R. I. S., Tom. IX.

[337] Corazzini, op. cit., p. 268. "Tertiæ vero Eclogæ titulus est Faunus, nam cum eiusdam causa fuerit Franciscus de Ordolaffis Forolivii Capitaneus, quem cum summe sylvas coleret et nemora, ob insitam illi venationis delectationem ego sæpissime Faunum vocare consueverim, eo quod Fauni sylvarum a poetis nuncupentur Dei, illam Faunum nominavi. Nominibus autem collocutorum nullum significatum volui, eo quod minime videretur opportunum."

[338] See Hortis, Studi sulle opere Latine del B. (Trieste, 1879), p. 5 et seq.

[339] Here is part of the Eclogue which will be useful to us:—

Eclog. III, p. 267 (ed. Firenze, 1719).

[340] Petrarch also calls him Argo in his third Eclogue. See Hortis, op. cit., p. 6, n. 2.

[341] The lions—biondi leoni—according to Hortis, refer to Niccolò Acciaiuoli, whose coat was a lion, but for me they are the Conti della Leonessa. Cf. Villani, op. cit., Lib. XII, cap. 51. When then did Boccaccio quarrel with Acciaiuoli?

[342]

[343] It is well known, of course, that King Louis made two descents into Italy: one in 1347 before the Black Death, and one after it in 1350. Hortis tells us that this Eclogue is certainly dated 1348 (op. cit., p. 5, n. 4). It therefore must allude to the first descent. This is confirmed, as Hortis points out, by the poems themselves. (1) By the chronological order in which Boccaccio treats of events in the Eclogues. The first two deal with his love, and those immediately following the third, of the events of 1348. (2) By the contents of the third Eclogue itself, which deals first with the happiness of Naples under King Robert, with his death, the murder of Andrew, and the descent of King Louis, his passage, as we shall see, through Forlì in 1347, whence Francesco degli Ordelaffi set out with him for Lower Italy: all of which happened not in the second, but in the first (1347) descent of King Louis.

[344] Villani, Cronica, Lib. XII, cap. 107.

[345] Cf. Annales Cæsenates R. I. S., Tom. XIV, col. 1179, and Hortis, op. cit., p. 8, n. 3. The latter argues long and successfully for the departure of Ordelaffo with King Louis at this date: to which he also ascribes the letters of Boccaccio to Zanobi (Quam pium, quam sanctum), by some considered apochryphal (Corazzini, op. cit., p. 447), where Boccaccio says: "Varronem quidem nondum habui: eram tamen habiturus in brevi, nisi itinera instarent ad illustrem Hungariæ regem in estremis Brutiorum et Campaniæ quo moratur, nam ut sua imitetur arma iustissima meus inclitus dominus et Pieridum hospes gratissimus cum pluribus Flamineæ proceribus præparetur; quo et ipse, mei prædicti domini jussu non armiger, sed ut ita loquar rerum occurrentium arbiter sum iturus, et præestantibus Superis, omnes in brevi victoria habita et celebrato triumpho dignissime proprias [sic] revisuri." The letter is dated Forlì.

[346] Cf. Fracassetti, in a note to Lett. 3 of Lib. XXI, Lett. Fam. of Petrarch; and as regards Boccaccio, see Baldelli, in note to Sonnet xcix., written for Cecco (Moutier, Vol. XVI, p. 175).

[347] Cf. Hortis, op. cit., pp. 8 and 267-77. Cf. Corazzini, op. cit., p. 447.

[348] That he met King Louis is certain. In the third Eclogue he says:—

[349] In the letters to Zanobi, spoken of above, beginning Quam pium, quam sanctum, he says he is going to the illustrious King of Hungary in the confines of the Abruzzi and of Campania: "Ad illustrem Hungariæ regem in estremis Brutiorum et Campaniæ."

[350] Villani, op. cit., Lib. XII, cap. 51, believed in the guilt of Giovanna, but he was writing from hearsay. He says the Queen lived in adultery with Louis of Taranto and with Robert of Taranto and with the son of Charles d'Artois and with Jacopo Capano.

[351] Boccaccio was and remained all his life a keen Guelf and supporter of the House of Anjou. Of that no doubt is possible. Cf. Hortis, op. cit., p. 109.

[352] See especially Sacchetti, Nov. XXI and CLVIII.

[353] M. Villani, Cronica, Lib. I, cap. ii.

[354] Cf. G. Villani, Lib. XII, cap. 84. After the horrible slaughters and wars in Florence, and indeed in all Tuscany, the disgraceful state of affairs in Naples, it is not wonderful that pestilence broke out and found a congenial soil.

[355] G. Morelli, Cronica, p. 280. Cf. G. Biagi, La vita privata dei Fiorentini (Milano, 1899), pp. 77-9.

[356] W. Heywood, The Ensamples of Fra Filippo (Torrini Siena, 1901), p. 80 et seq.

[357] In the Commentary on the Divine Comedy (Moutier, Vol. XI, p. 105) he says: "E se io ho il vero inteso, perciocchè in que' tempi io non ci era, io odo, che in questa città avvenne a molti nell' anno pestifero del MCCCXLVIII, che essendo soprappresi gli uomini dalla peste, e vicini alla morte, ne furon più e più, i quali de' loro amici, chi uno e chi due, e chi più ne chiamò, dicendo, vienne tale e tale; de' quali chiamati e nominati assai, secondo l' ordine tenuto dal chiamatore, s' eran morti, e andatine appresso al chiamatore...." This might seem evidence enough that Boccaccio was not in Florence in 1348, for he expressly says so. There is a passage, however, in the Decameron Introduction where he seems to say that he was in Florence; but as we shall see, we misunderstand him. He says: "So marvellous is that which I have now to relate that had not many, and I among them, observed it with their own eyes I had hardly dared to credit it...." He then goes on to tell us (assuring us again that he had seen it himself) that one day two hogs came nosing among the rags of a poor wretch who had died of the disease, and immediately they "gave a few turns and fell down dead as if from poison...." But this might have happened in Naples or Forlì quite as well as in Florence. It is only right to add that the Moutier edition of the Comento sopra Dante notes that the MS. from which it is printed reads 1340 instead of 1348 in the passage already quoted. This may or may not be an error. There was a plague in Florence in 1340. See Villani, op. cit., Lib. XII, cap. lxxiii.

[358] See the letter in Corazzini, op. cit., p. 23. It is written in the Neapolitan dialect, and in all the versions I have been able to see bears the date of no year at all. It is signed thus: "In Napoli, lo juorno de sant' Anniello—Delli toi Jannetto di Parisse dalla Ruoccia."

[359] Cf. Manni, Istoria del Decamerone (Firenze, 1742), p. 21. See also Koerting, op. cit., p. 179, and especially Crescini, op. cit., p. 257 et seq.

[360] Cf. Manni, u.s.

[361] Cf. Antona Traversi, Della realtà e della vera natura dell' amore di Messer Gio. Boccaccio (Livorno, 1883), and Ibid., Della verità dell' amore di Gio. Boccaccio (Bologna, 1884); also Renier, Di una nuova opinione sull' amore del B. in Rassegna Settimanale, Vol. VI, No. 145, pp. 236-8.

[362] Villani says B. wrote in the vulgar tongue in verse and prose "in quibus lascivientis iuventutis ingenio paullo liberius evagavit." Bandino says almost as little; but see Crescini, op. cit., p. 164, n. 3. Manetti says: "in amores usque ad maturam fere ætatem vel paulo proclivior." Squarciafico speaks of the various opinions current on the love of B. for Fiammetta, but does not give an opinion himself; he seems doubtful, however, whether the daughter of so great a king could be induced to forget her honour by mere verses and letters. Sansovino, however, thinks B. was a successful lover of Fiammetta. Betussi came to think the same, so did Nicoletti, and so did Zilioli. Mazzuchelli, however, does not believe it. Tiraboschi does not believe the so-called confessions of B. Baldelli, however, does believe them (op. cit., p. 364 et seq.).

[363] I confess that the dissenters seem to me to be merely absurd. They are not worth any fuller answer than that given above. Of course, in speaking of Fiammetta, I mean Maria d'Aquino. It would seem to be impossible to doubt her identity after the acrostic of the Amorosa Visione. I do not hope to convert the dissenters by abusing them. I would not convert them if I could. They are too dangerous to any cause.

[364] Baldelli, Rime di Messer Gio. Boccacci (Livorno, 1802). This text was reprinted in Raccolta di Rime Antiche Toscane (Palermo, 1817), Vol. IV, pp. 1-157, which was used by Rossetti for his translation of six of the sonnets, and again in the Opere Volgari (Moutier, 1834), Vol. XVI.

[365] Cf. Manicardi e Massera, Introduzione al testo critico del Canzoniere di Gio. Boccacci con rime inedite (Castelfiorentino, La Società Stor. di Valdelsa, 1901), p. 20. This book contains the best explanation we yet have of the sonnets and their order. It is a masterly little work. On it cf. Crescini in Rassegna bibliogr. della letter. it., Vol. IX, p. 38 et seq.

[366] Cf. Manicardi e Massera, op. cit., p. 21.