Collected Works of Giovanni Boccaccio

by Giovanni Boccaccio

  Again, Boccaccio tells us that at the time of his departure Idalagos was “semplice e lascivo,”700 which would scarcely be epithets to apply to a youth of seventeen years. And then, even though we pass that, what are we to think of a youth of seventeen who is so mortally afraid of his stepmother and his little brother, aged say nine, that to save his life, as he thinks, he runs away? Certainly this youth is very unlike Boccaccio. Whatever the date may be, then, the year 1330 would seem to be out of the question.

  At that time it was the custom of men to divide human life into seven ages, as Shakespeare records later. These seven ages we find were Infanzia, Puerizia, Gioventù or Adolescenza, Virilità, Vecchiaia, and Decrepitezza. The first three of these ages corresponded to the following years, thus: — 701

  Infanzia

  1-7

  Puerizia

  7-14

  Adolescenza

  14-21

  Now Boccaccio tells us quite clearly, “io ... fanciullo cercai i regni Etrurii, e di quelli in più ferma età venuto, qui [that is to Naples] venni.”702 That is to say: “I came to Tuscany before I was seven years old, and during my boyhood (Puerizia) between the ages of seven and fourteen, between the years 1320-1327, I came to Naples.”

  Does that seem a little far-fetched, a little as though we were trying to prove too much, with such vague words? Let us have patience. When after six years with the merchant in Naples, Boccaccio is abandoned by Abrotonia and Pampinea, they appear to him in a dream and tell him it was not for them he really sang, but for another. Then there comes to him a dream in which he sees this other, and recognises her as the lady who had welcomed him to Naples— “questa era colei, che nella mia puerizia vegnendo a questi luoghi, apparitami e baciatomi, lieta m’ avea la venuta profferta.”703 Nor does this passage stand alone. When on Holy Saturday he sees Fiammetta face to face, he recognises her as the lady who had lately appeared to him it is true, but first— “Questa è colei che nella mia puerizia e non ha gran tempo ancora, m’ apparve ne’ sonni miei....” Now puerizia, boyhood, fell, as we have seen, between the ages of seven and fourteen — between the years 1320 and 1327 in Boccaccio’s case.

  To clinch the matter, as we might think, in the De Genealogiis, xv. 10, Boccaccio tells us that he entered the merchant’s office before he was adolescent— “adolescentium nondum intrantem,” that is to say before he was fifteen and before the year 1328. So that it might seem to be proved not only that he came to Naples before 1330, but that he came to Naples between the years 1320 and 1327. Now old Boccaccio himself came to Naples in the autumn of 1327 — did Boccaccio then come with him? This at first sight seems likely; let us enquire into it.

  In the De Genealogiis, xv. 10, Boccaccio tells us that he was six years with the merchant, wasting his time, “Sex annis nil aliud feci quam non recuperabile tempus in vacuum terere.” That is to say, if he came to Naples with his father in 1327, he was still with the merchant in 1333, when he was twenty years old. But Benvenuto da Imola704 seems to tell us that Boccaccio was sixteen when he began to study Canon Law; in other words, if we read that author aright, Boccaccio began to study Canon Law in 1329. This will not square with the theory that he came to Naples in 1327, but it admirably fits our claim that he came to Naples in 1323, and after six years with a merchant began to study Canon Law in 1329, when he was sixteen years old.

  But we know that whatever else may be insecure in this question, it is at least certain that the departure of Boccaccio for Naples took place before the meeting with Fiammetta, for it was in Naples that he first saw her. At first sight this might seem to help us little, for the date of the meeting with Fiammetta is more disputed than anything else in Boccaccio’s chronology, the date usually given being either 27th March, 1334, or 11th April, 1338.705 We do not accept either of these dates. However, let us examine what evidence we have.

  In the introduction to the Filocolo Boccaccio tells us that he first saw and fell in love with Fiammetta on that Holy Saturday which fell in the sixteenth grado after the sun was entered into Aries. I give the whole passage, as the argument depends upon it: —

  “Avvene che un giorno, la cui prima ora Saturno avea signoreggiata, essendo già Febo co’ suoi cavalli al sedecimo grado del celestiale Montone pervenuto, e nel quale il glorioso partimento del figliuolo di Giove dagli spogliati regni di Plutone si celebrava, io, della presente opera componitore, mi trovai in un grazioso e bel tempio in Partenope, nominato da colui che per deificarsi sostenne che fosse fatto di lui sacrificio sopra la grata, e quivi con canto pieno di dolce melodia ascoltava l’ uficio che in tale giorno si canta, celebrato da’ sacerdoti successori di colui che prima la corda cinse umilemente esaltando la povertade quella seguendo. Ove io dimorando, e già essendo secondo che il mio intelletto estimava la quarta ora del giorno sopra l’ orientale orizzonte passata, apparve agli occhi miei le mirabile bellezza della prescritta giovane....”706

  The whole question is then: on what day did the sun enter Aries, in other words, on what day did Spring begin. We seem to be on the point of solving the difficulty by answering that question — an easy task — for sixteen days afterwards in the year we seek it was Holy Saturday, and Boccaccio then saw Fiammetta for the first time. The solution is, however, on consideration, not quite so simple. We have to ask not only when did Spring begin, but on what day did Boccaccio think it began; when did he think the sun entered Aries?

  As we know, Chaucer, Boccaccio’s contemporary, thought Spring began on 12th March,707 but Chaucer’s “Treatise on the Astrolabe” was written in 1391, more than fifty years after the Filocolo.

  All sorts of opinions have been expressed by scholars as to the date that was in Boccaccio’s mind as that which marked the entry of the sun into Aries. Baldelli708 thinks it was March 21st; Witte709 and Koerting710 say the 25th; Casetti711 says the 14th; and Landau712 says the 11th. The whole question is more or less complicated by the fact that the Julian Calendar was in use.

  We shall, then, find ourselves in agreement with many good scholars if we say that Boccaccio thought Spring began on the 25th March (see infra), and calculating thus, we shall find that he first met Fiammetta on April 11th, 1338, when he was twenty-five years old.713 This, however, is only conjecture.

  If we ask ourselves, then, on what day Spring really did begin, we shall find ourselves in agreement with Casetti, who names the 14th March. Why should Boccaccio have been ignorant of this? He cannot have been ignorant of it. Are all his studies with Calmeta and Andalò di Negro to go for nothing? He must have known when Spring began better than most men. If then we take the 14th March as the date and add the sixteen gradi to it, we arrive at the 30th. Now Holy Saturday fell on the 30th March in 1331 and in 1336. Which of these two dates is the true one? The earlier we think.

  If for the moment we admit that he came to Naples in 1323, he must have met Fiammetta in 1331, not in 1336, for he himself gives us to understand that seven years and four months passed between his advent and that Holy Saturday.714 It seems then most likely that he left home in 1323 and saw Fiammetta for the first time in 1331. If we argue back from the year 1336 (and, as has been shown, he met Fiammetta certainly either in 1331 or in 1336), we find that he left home in 1329, when he was sixteen. That would be open to as many objections as the year 1330 (see supra). Without actual certainty we may claim that the years 1323 and 1331 that have a secure relationship exactly fit in with all the secondary evidence that has been brought to bear upon the argument.

  Our conclusions are then: that Boccaccio entered Naples in December, 1323; that he was with a merchant for six years, till 1329, in which year he began to study Canon Law. For sixteen months he had followed this study (so that he left the merchant in the winter of 1329), when on Holy Saturday, March 30, 1331, at the age of eighteen, he first saw and fell in love with Fiammetta.715

  APPENDIX II

  DOCUMENT OF THE SALE OF “CORBIGNANO” (CALLED NOW “CASA DI BOCCACCIO”) BY BOCCACCINO IN 1336

  In Dei Nomine Amen. Anno eju
sdem incarnationis millesimo trecentesimo trigesimo sexto indictione quarta et die decimo octavo mensis Madij.

  Pateat etc. etc. etc.

  Item postea eodem die Bocchaccinus olim Chellini de Certaldo qui olim morabatur in populo Sancti Petri maioris et hodie moratur in populo Sancte Felicitatis de Florentia iure proprio et in perpetuum dedit vendidit tradidit et concessit Niccholo olim Vegne populi Sancti Simonis de Florentia ementi recipienti et stipulanti pro se ipso suisque heredibus habentibusque causam ab eodem pro ducentis quadraginta partibus pro indiviso ex trecentis quinquaginta partibus et Niccholao nepoti dicti Niccholi et filio olim Pauli olim Vegne dicti populi Sancti Simonis ementi stipulanti et recipienti pro se ipso suisque heredibus habentibusque causam ad eodem pro residuis centumdecem partibus pro indiviso ex trecentis quinquaginta partibus. Quoddam Podere cum domibus, curte, puteo, portibus, terra laborativa et vineata et olivis et arboribus, fossatis in medio, positis in parte in populo Sancti Martini la Melsola et in parte in populo Sancte Marie de Septignano Comitatus Florentie loco dicto Corbignano que esse dicuntur ad cordam et rectam mensuram Comunis Florentiæ stariorum trigintaocto et panorum duo vel circa et duo tamen capanne, quatuor orgiorum vel circa et quamdam bigonciam da ricever vino et quemdam suem ibidem existentem; quibus omnibus tales dixit esse confines, a primo olim heredes Becit Bonaccursii, et hodie Cose olim Banchi Cose, a secundo olim dictorum heredum Becti et hodie dicti Cose, via dicti poderis et rerum venditarum in medio, a tertio olim Chiarozzi de Lamone et hodie heredum Vantis Rimbaldesis, via dictorum poderis et rerum venditarum in medio in partem, et olim Omodeii Spadari et hodie Andree Aghinecti in partem, a quarto olim dicti Homodey et hodie dicti Andree in partem et Pieri Boni in partem; infra predictos confines vel alios si qui forent pluries vel veriores, accessibus, aggressibus, ingressibus et egressibus suis et cuiuslibet vel alterius earum usque in viam publican et cum omni iure, actione, possessione, tenuta usu, usufructu seu requisitione eidem Boccaccino pro dictis rebus venditis vel earum aliqua aut ipsis rebus venditis vel earum alicui modo aliquo pertinenti vel spectanti; et cum omnibus et singulis que super se, infra, seu inter se habent dicte res vendite vel earum aliqua ad habendum, tenendum, possidendum, fruendum, usufructandum, et quidquid eisdem Nicchole Vegne pro partibus supradictis et Niccholao Pauli pro partibus supradictis pro inde deiceps placuerit perpetuo faciendum. Que quidem podere et res vendite et earum quamlibet predictus Boccaccinus pro eisdem Niccholo Vegne pro partibus supradictis et Niccholao Pauli pro partibus supradictis constituit possidere donec exinde dicti Niccholas Vegne pro partibus supradictis et Niccholaus Pauli pro partibus supradictis vel aliquis eorum pro se et alio eorumdem vel aliis pro eis corporalem possessionem sumere adeptas vel adeptis. Que et quas intrandi et exinde corporalem possessionem adipisci et retinendi deinceps dictus Boccaccinus venditor eisdem emptoribus et eorum cuilibet pro partibus supradictis quandocumque, quocumque, quotiescumque et qualitercumque voluerint, vel eorum aliquis licentiam concessit omnimodam atque dedit. Insuper dictus Boccaccinus venditor fecit et constituit suum procuratorem Bencivennem Mactheii dicti populi Sancti Simonis ibidem presentem et recipientem specialiter ad ponendum et immittendum pro eo et eius nomine dictos Niccholam Vegne pro partibus supradictis et Niccholaum Pauli pro partibus supradictis, vel alium recipientem pro eis et eorum quolibet in tenutam et corporalem possessionem dictorum poderis et rerum venditarum, et cuiuslibet earum et earum cuiuslibet, earum tenutam et corporalem possessionem tradendi cum omni iure eidem Bocchaccino in dictis rebus venditis vel earum aliqua pertinentia. Et generaliter ad omnia facienda que ipse constituens posset facere si adesset. Insuper etiam dictus Bocchaccinus ex caussa vendictionis predicte dedit, cessit, transtulit et exinde eisdem Niccholò Vegne et Niccholao Pauli et cuilibet eorum pro partibus supradictis omnia et singula iura et actiones reales et personales, utiles et directas mixtas tacitas et expressas preter civiles et conventionales omnesque alias eidem Bocchaccino competentes et spectantes, et que et quas ipse Bocchaccinus habet eidemque competunt contra et adversus quemlibet et quoslibet et quemcumque et quoscum auctores suos eidemque Bocchaccino pro dictis seu occasione dictorum poderis et rerum quomodolibet obligavit faciens et costituens predictus Bocchaccinus eosdem Niccholam Vegne et Niccholaum Pauli ibidem presentes, procuratores in rem suam eosdemque ponens in locum suum in iuribus et nominibus supradictis quo ad possint dicti Niccholas Vegne et Niccholaus et quilibet eorum pro partibus supradictis, pro dictis, et contra predictis agere etc. Et promisit et convenit dictus Bocchaccinus venditor eidem Nicchole Vegne et Niccholao Pauli et cuilibet eorum stipulanti et recipienti ut supra pro partibus supradictis, pacifice et quiete permittere et permicti facere dictos emptores et eorum quemlibet pro partibus supradictis eorumque et cuiuslibet eorum heredibus, habentibusque caussam ab eisdem ipsum podere et res vendite et earum quamlibet earumque et cuiuslibet earum obventionum habere etc. Et nullam litem questionem seu brigam eisdem emptoribus vel eorum alicui eorumque vel alicuius eorum heredum habentibusque caussam ab eisdem in dictis rebus venditis vel earum aliqua vel earum seu alicuius earum parte seu partiolam vel in earum seu alicuius earum obventionis inferre facere vel movere seu inferenti, facienti, vel moventi consentire. Set omnes et singulas lites et questiones eisdem emptoribus vel eorum alicui eorumque vel alicuius eorum heredum vel habentibusque caussam ab eisdem in dictis rebus venditis vel earum aliqua vel in earum seu alicuius earum parte seu particola, vel in earum seu alicuius earum obventionis per libelli oblationem simplicem requisitionem, tenutam, notitiam vel usuras, vel tenute dationem, pronumptiationem, acquisitionem, vel immissionem vel partim de disgombrando, vel alio quocumque modo motas vel movendas in se suscipere a die qua eidem Bocchaccino vel eius heredibus delatum fuerit personaliter vel ad domum ad tres dies tunc proxime secutoros. Ita quod a dictis emptoribus vel eorum quolibet eorumque et cuiuslibet eorum heredum habentibusque causam ab eisdem in totum tollantur et ad causam ire etc. Et ipsas res venditas et earum quamlibet earumque et cuiuscumque earum obventionum eisdem emptoribus stipulantibus et recipientibus ut supra defendere, auctorizare, et disbrigare, et ab omni homine loco et universitate, et ab omni obventione, conventione preterea atque pignoris, et ab omni debito, negotio et contumacia, et ab omni tenuta, notitia, et usuris et tenute datione, pronumptiatione, acquisitione vel immissione et de iure et de facto in omnibus causis videlicet ab omni libra, factione, prestantia, impositione, gabella quadam, banno inquisitione heretice pravitatis eteius officio facto vel fiendo et ab omne heresis ammonitione et ab officialibus Universitatis Mercatorum et Mercantie Comunis Florentie, et ab omnibus et singulis Sindacis et officialibus deputatis vel deputandis per Commune Florentinum super negociis alicuius vel aliquorum mercatoris vel mercatorum nunc vel in futurum pronumptiatione cessantium et fugitivorum cum pecunia et rebus debitoris et eorum creditorum, et a Iudice et Officio Bonorum Rebellium, exbannitorum et condepmnatorum, et cessantium ac libris et factionibus Communis Florentie et ab omni et quolibet officio dicti Communis Florentie presentibus et futuris nec non a Comuni Florentino supradicto et eisdem emptoribus cuilibet videlicet eorum ut supra stipulanti et recipienti ipsarum rerum venditadum et cuiuslibet earum vacuam possessionem tradere et ipsos ut supra stipulantes et recipientes in earum et cuiuslibet earum possessionum facere et defendere penitus et in earum et cuiuslibet earum possessu vero domino indepmne servare tueri et defensare. Remissis eisdem emptoribus ut supra stipulantibus et recipientibus ex pacto etiam appellandi necessitate si super evictione pronumptiatione contigerit contra eos vel eorum aliquem vel eorum vel alicuius eorum heredum vel habentibusque caussam ab eisdem. Et acto inter eos expresse quod non possit dici, allegari vel exponi eisdem emptoribus vel eorum alicui vel eorum vel alicuius eorum heredum habentibusque caussam ab eisdem vel eorum aliquo pro eisdem vel eorum alicui factum sit vel fuerit vel facta esset seu foret vel fieret iniuria vel ininstitia. Si ipse res vendite vel earum aliqua vel earum seu alicuius earum obventionis evinceretur ab eis vel eorum aliquo vel quod ipsi vel eorum aliquis in curia seu ad curiam non comparuerint vel non comparuerit, vel quod libellium seu caussam in sè non susce
perint vel non suceperit, vel quod litem non fuerint vel non fuerit contestatam, vel quod ipsarum rerum vel alicuius earum defensor non opposuerit vel non opposuerint, vel quod eorum vel alicuius eorum culpa vel negligentia fuerit evictus. Et quod ipsi vel eorum aliquis non teneantur seu teneatur in curia seo ad curiam comparere, esse vel stare, vel libellum seu causam in se suscipere vel litem contestari vel defensari dictarum rerum vel alicuius earum aliqualiter se offereret. Et si, quod absit, evenerit dictas res venditas in totum vel in partem dictis emptoribus vel eorum alicui eorumque vel alicuius eorum heredum vel habentibusque caussam ab eisdem vel eorum aliquo quoquo modo evinci vel super evictione etiam contra eos vel eorum aliquem quoquo modo ferri sententiam proinde et contra dictum Bocchaccinum, eisdem Nicchole Vegne et Niccholao Pauli et cuilibet eorum stipulanti et recipienti ut supra et pro partibus supradictis infrascriptum pretium cum omnibus et singulis dapmnis expensis et interesse propterea secutis vel factis dare, solvere, reddere et restituere a die videlicet evictionis quoquo modo secute vel sententie super evictione quoquo modo late ad tres dies tunc proxime secuturos Florentie, Prati, Pistorii, Luce, Senis, Pisis, Aretii, Perusii et alibi ubicumque locorum et terrarum dictus Bocchaccinus inventus vel conventus fuerit. Et promisit et convenit dictus Bocchaccinus venditor eisdem emptoribus vel eorum cuilibet stipulantibus et recipientibus ut supra, et pro partibus supradittis predictam vendictionem, traditionem, concessionem, promissionem et omnia et singula supracitata et eorum quodlibet firma habere et tenere et haberi et teneri facere et se in omnibus contra predicta dedit etc. Si vero contra predicta vel predictorum aliquid idem Bocchaccinus venditor dederit vel fecerit aut dabit vel faciet in futurum aut datum vel factum quomodolibet apparuerit in aliquo capitulo in loco seu publico presenti contractu supra vel etiam imposito aut si ut promissum est et superius expressum factum non erit, promisit et convenit dictus Bocchaccinus eisdem Niccholo Vegne et Niccholao Pauli et cuilibet eorum stipulanti et recipienti ut supra, dare et solvere nomine pene et pena duplum infrascripti pretii et insuper florenos aurei quadringentos bonos et puros solepni stipulatione promisit cum refectione dapnorum etc. Que quidem pena totiens committatur et peti et exigi possit cum effectu quotiens contra predicta vel predictorum aliquid datum aut factum fuerit seu ventum vel predictorum aliquid non servatum.