{"title":"Boccaccio’s Neapolitan Letter and Multilingualism in Angevin Naples","authors":"C. Lee","doi":"10.1353/MDI.2013.0003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In Decameron 3.6.4, Boccaccio describes Naples as a “citta antichissima e forse cosi dilettevole, o piu, come ne sia alcuna altra in Italia [ancient city... which is perhaps as delectable a city as any to be found in Italy],” thus expressing his admiration for the city he lived in as a young man. His years in Naples (1327–1340/41) were to influence most of his work from the Caccia di Diana (1334–37) to De casi bus virorum illustrium, which was dedicated to Mainardo Cavalcanti, military commander of the Duchy of Amalfi, and, on his final visit to Naples in 1370–71, he gave a copy of the Genealogie deorum gen tilium, a work in part based on texts he had consulted in Robert’s library, to his Neapolitan friend Pietro Piccolo da Monteforte, who read it and made suggestions that were included in the following version. Moreover, for much of his life after his return to Florence in 1340/41, Boccaccio attempted to obtain a position at the court in Naples, though when he was finally offered that of court poet by Joanna I and her third husband, James of Majorca, in 1370, he turned it down. So, Boccaccio’s works show that he had assimilated Neapolitan culture, but none more so than his so-called Neapolitan letter (Epistola napoletana), sometimes given the title La Machinta in the manuscripts. Written around 1339 and addressed to Francesco de’ Bardi, who is said to have been living in Gaeta at the time, the letter celebrates the birth of a baby to a woman called Machinti, the father of whom is purported to be Bardi himself. It is made up of two parts, a first “letter of presentation” in a formal style in Tuscan, and a second “che noi per diporto di noi medesimi ti scriviamo [which we are writing to you for our own amusement]” (437), written in the Neapolitan vernacular. The letter is transmitted by thirty-nine manuscripts. On the whole, it has been studied by scholars of the history of Italian,","PeriodicalId":36685,"journal":{"name":"Scripta Mediaevalia","volume":"18 1","pages":"21 - 7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scripta Mediaevalia","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/MDI.2013.0003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
In Decameron 3.6.4, Boccaccio describes Naples as a “citta antichissima e forse cosi dilettevole, o piu, come ne sia alcuna altra in Italia [ancient city... which is perhaps as delectable a city as any to be found in Italy],” thus expressing his admiration for the city he lived in as a young man. His years in Naples (1327–1340/41) were to influence most of his work from the Caccia di Diana (1334–37) to De casi bus virorum illustrium, which was dedicated to Mainardo Cavalcanti, military commander of the Duchy of Amalfi, and, on his final visit to Naples in 1370–71, he gave a copy of the Genealogie deorum gen tilium, a work in part based on texts he had consulted in Robert’s library, to his Neapolitan friend Pietro Piccolo da Monteforte, who read it and made suggestions that were included in the following version. Moreover, for much of his life after his return to Florence in 1340/41, Boccaccio attempted to obtain a position at the court in Naples, though when he was finally offered that of court poet by Joanna I and her third husband, James of Majorca, in 1370, he turned it down. So, Boccaccio’s works show that he had assimilated Neapolitan culture, but none more so than his so-called Neapolitan letter (Epistola napoletana), sometimes given the title La Machinta in the manuscripts. Written around 1339 and addressed to Francesco de’ Bardi, who is said to have been living in Gaeta at the time, the letter celebrates the birth of a baby to a woman called Machinti, the father of whom is purported to be Bardi himself. It is made up of two parts, a first “letter of presentation” in a formal style in Tuscan, and a second “che noi per diporto di noi medesimi ti scriviamo [which we are writing to you for our own amusement]” (437), written in the Neapolitan vernacular. The letter is transmitted by thirty-nine manuscripts. On the whole, it has been studied by scholars of the history of Italian,
在《十日谈》3.6.4中,薄伽丘将那不勒斯描述为“意大利的一座古城……这可能是意大利最令人愉快的城市了],因此表达了他对自己年轻时居住过的这座城市的钦佩。他在那不勒斯的岁月(1327-1340/41)对他的大部分作品产生了影响,从《戴安娜的Caccia》(1334-37)到《De casi - bus virorum illuum》(献给阿马尔菲公国的军事指挥官Mainardo Cavalcanti),在1370-71年他最后一次访问那不勒斯时,他给了他的那不勒斯朋友Pietro Piccolo da Monteforte一份《deorum gen - tilium家世》的副本,该作品部分基于他在罗伯特图书馆查阅的文本。他们阅读了它并提出了建议,这些建议包含在下面的版本中。此外,在1340年至1341年回到佛罗伦萨后的大部分时间里,薄伽丘都试图在那不勒斯的宫廷中获得一个职位,尽管当乔安娜一世和她的第三任丈夫马略卡岛的詹姆斯在1370年最终向他提供宫廷诗人的职位时,他拒绝了。因此,薄伽丘的作品表明他已经吸收了那不勒斯文化,但最重要的是他所谓的那不勒斯书信(Epistola napoletana),有时在手稿中被称为《机械》(La machita)。这封信写于1339年左右,写给当时住在加埃塔的弗朗西斯科·德·巴尔迪(Francesco de ' Bardi),庆祝一位名叫马金蒂(Machinti)的女子生下了一个孩子,据说孩子的父亲就是巴尔迪本人。它由两部分组成,第一部分是托斯卡纳正式风格的“呈递信”,第二部分是用那不勒斯方言写的“che noi per diporto di noi medesimi ti scriviamo(我们为自己的娱乐而写给你的)”(437)。这封信由三十九份手稿传送。总的来说,意大利历史学者对它进行了研究,