Per un Diverso Decameron
It is a well known fact that Boccaccio’s The Decameron has been strongly influenced by Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Petrarch’s The Canzoniere. Yet, such an influence, particularly as Dante is concerned, is generally considered a symptom of Boccaccio’s veneration for his great predecessor. Rarely ha...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Italian |
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Universidade de São Paulo
2015-06-01
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| Series: | Revista de Italianística |
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| Online Access: | https://www.revistas.usp.br/italianistica/article/view/116149 |
| Summary: | It is a well known fact that Boccaccio’s The Decameron has been strongly influenced by Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Petrarch’s The Canzoniere. Yet, such an influence, particularly as Dante is concerned, is generally considered a symptom of Boccaccio’s veneration for his great predecessor. Rarely have scholars asked themselves whether Boccaccio, following Dante’s path, also disputes some fundamental points of Dante’s poem. The article tries to demonstrate how Boccaccio faces this problem as well as how Boccaccio critically queries the fundaments of truth in the Divine Comedy. This can be conspicuously observed in parts of The Decameron where the author speaks directly to the reader (particularly in the Introduction to day IV). However, it can also be identified in other parts of the book, as it is the case with the assumptions and conclusions of the single tales. If not a totally opposite model to Dante’s poem, these sections of Boccaccio’s masterpiece have to be regarded as a radically different literary experience |
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| ISSN: | 1413-2079 2238-8281 |