CHAPTER I

1313-1323

BOCCACCIO'S PARENTAGE, BIRTH, AND CHILDHOOD

The facts concerning the life and work of Giovanni Boccaccio, though they have been traversed over and over again by modern students,[3] are still for the most part insecure and doubtful; while certain questions, of chronology especially, seem to be almost insoluble. To begin with, we are uncertain of the place of his birth and of the identity of his mother, of whom in his own person he never speaks. And though it is true that he calls himself "of Certaldo,"[4] a small town at that time in the Florentine _contado_ where he had some property, and where indeed he came at last to die, we have reason to believe that it was not his birthplace. The opinion now most generally professed by Italian scholars is that he was born in Paris of a French mother; and, while we cannot assert this as a fact, very strong evidence, both from within and from without his work, can be brought to support it. It will be best, perhaps, to examine this evidence, whose corner-stone is his assertion to Petrarch that he was born in 1313,[5] as briefly as possible.

The family of Boccaccio[6] was originally from Certaldo in Valdelsa,[7] his father being the Florentine banker and money-changer Boccaccio di Chellino da Certaldo, commonly called Boccaccino.[8] We know very little about him, but we are always told that he was of very humble condition. That he was of humble birth seems certain, but his career, what we know of his career, would suggest that he was in a position of considerable importance. We know that in 1318 he was in business in Florence, the name of his firm being Simon Jannis Orlandini, Cante et Jacobus fratres et filii q. Ammannati et Boccaccinus Chelini de Certaldo. In the first half of 1324 he was among the _aggiunti deputati_ of the _Arte del Cambio_ for the election of the _Consiglieri della Mercanzia_;[9] in 1326 he was himself one of the five Consiglieri; in the latter part of 1327 he represented the Società de' Bardi in Naples, and was very well known to King Robert;[10] while in 1332 he was one of the _Fattori_ for the same _Società_ in Paris, a post at least equivalent to that of a director of a bank to-day. These were positions of importance, and could not have been held by a person of no account.

As a young man, in 1310, we know he was in business in Paris, for on May 12 in that year fifty-four Knights Templars were slaughtered there,[11] and this Boccaccio tells us his father saw.[12] That there was at that time a considerable Florentine business in France in spite of those years of disaster--Henry VII had just entered Italy--is certain. In 1311, indeed, we find the Florentines addressing a letter to the King of France,[13] lamenting that at such a moment His Majesty should have taken measures hurtful to the interests of their merchants, upon whom the prosperity of their city so largely depended.

Boccaccio di Chellino seems to have remained in Paris in business;[14] that he was still there in 1313 we know, for in that year, on March 11, Jacques de Molay, Master of the Templars, was executed, and Giovanni tells us that his father was present.[15] If, then, Boccaccio was speaking the truth when he told Petrarch he was born in 1313, he must have been conceived, and was almost certainly born, in Paris.

[Illustration: THE BURNING OF THE MASTER OF THE TEMPLE

_From a miniature in the French version of the "De Casibus Virorum," made in 1409 by Laurent le Premierfait. MS. late XV century. (Brit. Mus. Showcase V, MS. 126.)_]

Let us now examine such evidence as we may gather from the allegories of his own poems and plays, though there he speaks in parables. In two of his works at least--the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_--Boccaccio seems to be speaking of himself in the characters of Idalagos[16] and Caleone and Ibrida. The _Ameto_, like the _Filocolo_, was written to give expression to his love for Fiammetta, the bastard daughter of King Robert of Naples. There he says that Caleone (whom we suppose to be in some sort himself) was born not far from the place whence Fiammetta's mother (whom he has told us was French) drew her origin. Again, in another part of the same book the story is related of a young Italian merchant, not distinguished by birth or gentle breeding, who went to Paris and there seduced a young French widow. The fruit of their intercourse was a boy, who received the name of Ibrida. The evidence to be gathered from the _Filocolo_ is even more precise, but, briefly, it may be said to confirm the story in the _Ameto_.[17] We find there, however, that the name of the father was Eucomos, which may be bad Greek for Boccaccio; that the name of the mother was Gannai, which might seem to be an anagram for Giovanna or Gianna; and that the father deserted the mother in order to marry Gharamita,[18] which sounds like an anagram for Margherita, and in fact we find that Boccaccio di Chellino did marry almost certainly about 1314 Margherita di Gian Donato de' Martoli.[19]

The result then of these allegorical allusions in the _Ameto_ and the _Filocolo_ is to support the theory based on the few facts we possess, and to supplement it. That theory absolutely depends, so far as we rely upon facts for its confirmation, on Boccaccio's own statement, as reported by Petrarch, that he was born in 1313. If he was born in 1313, he was conceived and born in Paris, for we know that Boccaccio di Chellino was there in the years between 1310 and 1313. The _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_ bear this out, and lead us to believe that his mother was a certain Gianna or Gannai (Jeanne, Giovanna), that he was born out of wedlock, and that his father deserted his mother, and not long after married Gharamita, as we suppose Margherita di Gian Donato de' Martoli.

Turning now to the evidence of his contemporaries, we shall find that just this was the opinion commonly received, so much so that the Italian translator of Filippo Villani's _Lives_ actually changed the words of that author and forced him to agree with it. "His father," says this adapter,[20] "was Boccaccio of Certaldo, a village of the Florentine dominion. He was a man distinguished by excellence of manners. The course of his commercial affairs brought him to Paris, where he resided for a season, and being free and pleasant in the temper of his mind, was no less gay and well inclined to love by the complexion of his constitution. There then it befell that he was inspired by love for a girl of Paris, belonging to the class between nobility and bourgeoisie, for whom he conceived the most violent passion; and, as the admirers of Giovanni assert, she became his wife and afterwards the mother of Giovanni."

As his admirers assert! But others were not slow to say that his father and mother were never married; and indeed, this without doubt was the ordinary opinion.

In the true version of Filippo Villani's _Lives_,[21] written in Latin, we read that he was the son of his natural father,[22] and that he was born at Certaldo. Domenico Aretino[23] agrees that Certaldo was his birthplace, and adds that in his opinion Boccaccio was a bastard. Again, Salvini and Manni, following perhaps the well-known sonnet of Acquettino, say he was born in Florence.[24] In all this confusion we are like to lose our way, and it is therefore not surprising that modern scholars are divided in opinion. Tiraboschi[25] remains undecided. Baldelli[26] thinks he was born in Paris and was illegitimate; Ginguené, Witte, Carducci, Landau, Hortis, Antona Traversi, and Crescini agree with Baldelli--and, indeed, we find only two modern students who give Florence as his birthplace, to wit Corazzini[27] and Koerting[28], who agree, however, that he was a bastard.

It will thus be seen that the weight of opinion is on the side of the evidence, and that it certainly seems to have been shown that Boccaccio was born out of wedlock in Paris in 1313, and that his mother's name was Jeannette or Jeanne[29]. It is probable that Boccaccio was brought still a tiny baby to Florence, but we cannot be sure of this, for though his father seems to have returned in 1314,[30] and almost at once to have married Margherita di Gian Donato de' Martoli, it is not certain that Giovanni accompanied him. Indeed the _Filocolo_ seems to suggest that he did not.[31] However that may be, he was "in his first infancy" when he came to Tuscany, as he tells us in the _Ameto_, "fanciullo, cercai i regni Etrurii." The first river he saw was the Arno, "mihi ante alios omnes ab ipsa infantia cognitus"; and his boyhood was spent on that little hill described in the _Filocolo_, "piccolo poggio pieno di marine chiocciole," and covered with "salvatichi cerri," in the house of his father, "nel suo grembo," as he says in the _Fiammetta_.

Where was this hill dark with oaks where one might find sea-shells, the tiny shells of sea-snails? We do not know for certain. Some have thought it to be the hill of Certaldo,[32] but this seems scarcely likely, for we know that old Boccaccio was resident in Florence in 1318, and Boccaccio himself tells us that his boyhood was spent not in a house belonging to his father, but "nel suo grembo," literally in his father's lap.[33] Again, the country which he loved best and has described with the greatest love and enthusiasm is that between the village of Settignano and the city of Fiesole, north and east of Florence. As though unable to forget the lines of just those hills, the shadows on the woods there, the darkness of the cypresses over the olives, he returns to them again and again. The _Ninfale Fiesolano_ is entirely devoted to this country, its woods and hills and streams; he speaks of it also in the _Ameto_,[34] it is the setting of the _Decameron_; while the country about Certaldo does not seem to have specially appealed to him, certainly not in the way the countryside of one's childhood never ceases to do.

It is, then, to the hills about Settignano, to the woods above the Mensola and the valley of the Affrico, that we should naturally turn to look for the scenes of his boyhood. And indeed any doubt of his presence there might seem to be dismissed by a document discovered by Gherardi, which proves that on the 18th of May, 1336, by a contract drawn up by Ser Salvi di Dini, Messer Boccaccio di Chellino da Certaldo, lately dwelling in the parish of S. Pier Maggiore and then in that of S. Felicità, sold to Niccolò di Vegna, who bought for Niccolò the son of Paolo his nephew, the _poderi_ with houses called Corbignano, partly in the parish of S. Martino a Mensola and partly in that of S. Maria a Settignano.[35] This villa of old Boccaccio's exists to-day at Corbignano, and bears his name, Casa di Boccaccio, and though it has been rebuilt much remains from his day--part of the old tower that has been broken down and turned into a loggia, here a ruined fresco, there a spoiled inscription.[36] Here, doubtless, within sound of Mensola and Affrico, within sight of Florence and Fiesole, "not too far from the city nor too near the gate," Giovanni's childhood was passed.

Of those early years we have naturally very little knowledge. Before he was seven years old, as he himself tells us,[37] he was set to learn to read and write. Then he was placed in the care of Giovanni di Domenico Mazzuoli da Strada, father of the more famous Zanobi, to begin the study of "Grammatica."[38] With Mazzuoli he began Latin then,[39] but presently his father, who had already destined him for the counting-house, took him from the study of "Grammatica" and, as Giovanni tells us, made him give his time to "Arismetrica."[40] Then, if we may believe the _Filocolo_, he took him into his business, where he learned, no doubt, to keep books of account and saw some of the mysteries of banking and money-lending. Against this mode of life he conceived then a most lively hatred, which was to increase rather than to diminish as he grew older. Such work, he assures us in his _Commentary_ on the _Divine Comedy_, cannot be followed without sin. Great wealth, he tells us in the _Filocolo_, prohibits, or at least spoils virtue: there is nothing better or more honest than to live in a moderate poverty; while in the _De Genealogiis Deorum_ he says poverty means tranquillity of soul: for riches are the enemy of quietness and a torment of the mind.

[Illustration: CASA DI BOCCACCIO, CORBIGNANO, NEAR FLORENCE]

But we know nothing of his childhood, only it seems to have been unhappy. Till his return from Naples many year later, in spite of his hatred for business, he seems always to have got on well with his father.[41] In remembering words which he then wrote concerning him[42] we must remind ourselves that Boccaccino was at that time an old man, and had probably lost those "excellent manners" of which Villani speaks; and by then, too, Giovanni had altogether disappointed him, by forsaking first business, and later the study of Canon Law. His childhood seems to have been unhappy then not from any fault or want of care on his father's part, though no doubt his hatred of business had something to do with it; but the true cause of the unhappiness, and even, as he says, of the fear which haunted his boyhood, was almost certainly Margherita, his stepmother, with whom he doubtless managed to live well enough till her son Francesco was born.

We have already relied so much on the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_ that it will only confuse us to forsake them now. In the former,[43] he tells us that one day the young shepherd, Idalagos (himself), following his father, saw two bears, who glared at him with fierce and terrible eyes in which he saw a desire for his death, so that he was afraid and fled away from the paternal fields to follow his calling in other woods. These two bears who chased Giovanni from home, not directly but indirectly, by causing the fear which hatred always rouses in the young, were, it seems, Margherita and her son Francesco, born about 1321.

It may well be that Boccaccino had come to the conclusion about this time that Giovanni would never make a banker, and hoping yet to see him prosperous in the Florentine manner, sent him to Naples to learn to be a merchant. If we add to this inference the evidence of the allegory of the two bears in the _Filocolo_, we may conclude that his father, disappointed with him already, was not hard to persuade when Margherita, loath to see the little bastard beside her own son Francesco, urged his departure.

All this, however, is conjecture. We know nothing of Boccaccio's early years save that his father sent him to Naples to learn business while he was still young, as is generally believed in 1330, but as we may now think, not without good reason, in 1323, when he was ten years old.[44]

FOOTNOTES:

[3] For a full bibliography see GUIDO TRAVERSARI, _Bibliografia Boccaccesca_ (Città di Castello, 1907), Vol. I (Scritti intorno al Boccaccio e alla fortuna delle sue opere).

[4] He commonly signs himself "Joannes Boccaccius" and "Giovanni da Certaldo." In his Will he describes himself as "Joannes olim Boccacii de Certaldo," and in the epitaph he wrote for his tomb we read "Patria Certaldum."

[5] See PETRARCA, _Senili_, VIII, i., Lett. del 20 luglio, 1366 (in traduz. Fracassetti, p. 445): "Conciossiachè tu devi sapere, e il sappian pure quanti non hanno a schifo quest' umile origine, che nell' anno 1304 di quest' ultima età, cui dà nome e principio Gesù Cristo fonte ed autore di ogni mia speranza, sullo spuntare dell' alba, il lunedì 20 luglio io nacqui al mondo nella città di Arezzo, e nella strada dell' Orto.... Ed oggi pure è lunedì, siamo pur oggi al 20 di luglio e corre l' anno 1366. Conta sulle dita e vedrai che son passati 62 anni da che toccai l' inquieta soglia di questa vita; sì che oggi appunto, e in quest' ora medesima, io pongo il piede su quel che dicono anno tremendo sessagesimo terzo, e se tu non menti, e, secondo il costume che dissi de' giovani, qualcuno pure tu non te ne scemi nell' ordine del nascere, io ti precedo di nove anni." Then if Petrarch was born in 1304, Boccaccio was born in 1313. FILIPPO VILLANI, _Le Vite d' uomini illustri Fiorentini_ (Firenze, 1826), p. 12, tells us that Boccaccio died in 1375, aged sixty-two.

[6] Cf. DAVIDSOHN, _Il Padre di Gio. Boccacci_ in _Arch. St. It._, Ser. V, Vol. XXIII, p. 144. IDEM, _Forschungen zur Geschichte von Florenz_ (Berlin, 1901), pp. 172, 182, 184, 187, 253. G. MINI, _Il Libro d' oro di Firenze Antica_ in _Giornale Araldico-genealogico-diplomatico_ (1901), XXVIII, p. 156. And see for the descendants of the family an interesting paper by ANSELMI, _Nuovi documenti e nuove opere di frate Ambrogio della Robbia nelle Marche_ in _Arte e Storia_ (1904), XXIII, p. 154.

[7] He himself tells us this in _De Montibus, Sylvis, Lacubus_, etc.

[8] See the documents published by CRESCINI, _Contributo agli Studi sul Boccaccio_ (Torino, 1887), esp. p. 258.

[9] See _Arch. di Stato Firenze, Mercanzia_, No. 137, _ad ann._, May 23.

[10] In the carteggio of the _Signoria Fiorentina_ (missive iv. f. 37 of _Arch. di Stato di Firenze_) is to be found the copy of a letter from the Priori to King Robert, which has been published. The Signoria on April 12, 1329, write to King Robert that the lack of corn in the city is so great as to cause fear of tumult; wherefore they pray him to order the captains of his ships to send certain galleys they had taken with corn to Talamone, where they might buy what they needed. Under this letter is written: "Ad infra scriptos mercatores. Predicta notificata sunt Boccaccio de Certaldo, Baldo Orlandini et Acciaiolo de Acciaiolis, et mandatum est et scriptum, quod litteras predictas domino regi presententur." It follows that Boccaccino was among the first Florentine _negozianti_ then in Naples. But see _infra_. He must have come into personal relations with King Robert on this occasion, even though hitherto he had not done so.

[11] Cf. HAVEMANN, _Geschichte des ausgangs des Tempelherrenordens_ (Stuttgart, 1846), pp. 261-3, and CRESCINI, _Contributo agli studi sul Boccaccio_ (Torino, 1887), cap. i. p. 25. Crescini's book is invaluable.

[12] He tells us this in the _De Casibus Illustrium Virorum_, Lib. IX.

[13] See DESJARDINS, _Négociations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane_, Vol. I, p. 12 _et seq._, and VILLARI, _The First Two Centuries of Florentine History_ (Eng. trans., 1905), p. 554.

[14] That he was not a mere traveller between Tuscany and France seems certain, for Boccaccio says: "Boccaccius genitor meus, qui tunc forte Parisius negotiator, honesto cum labore rem curabat augere domesticam," etc.

[15] BOCCACCIO, _De Cas. Ill. Vir._, Lib. IX. Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._

[16] Cf. CRESCINI, _op. cit._, cap. i; ANTONA TRAVERSI, _Della patria di Gio. Boccaccio_ in _Fanfulla della Domenica_ (1880), II, and in _Rivista Europea_ (1882), XXVI. See also B. ZUMBINI, _Il Filocolo del Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1879), esp. p. 58; and CRESCINI, _Idalagos_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil._ (1885-6), IX, 457-9, X, 1-21.

[17] Cf. _Ameto_ in _Opere Minori_ (Milan, 1879), p. 186 _et seq._; and _Filocolo_ in _Opere Volgari_, ed. Moutier (Firenze, 1827), Vol. II, p. 236 _et seq._

[18] For a full discussion of these allusions and anagrams, cf. CRESCINI, _Contributo agli studi sul Boccaccio_ (Torino, 1887), cap, i. It will be seen that if our theory be correct, Giovanni Boccaccio bears the names of both his parents--Giovanna and Boccaccio. It is necessary to point out, however, that there is not much in this, for a paternal uncle was called Vanni, and Giovanni may have been named after him, as his brother was named after another uncle. Cf. BALDELLI, _Vita di Gio. Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1806), p. 274, note 1.

[19] In the _Filocolo_ (_ed. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 242-3) we read: "Ma non lungo tempo quivi ricevuti noi dimorò, che abbandonata la semplice giovane e l' armento tornò nei suoi campi, e quivi appresso noi si tirò, e non guari lontano al suo natal sito la promessa fede a Giannai ad un' altra, Garamita chiamata, ripromise e servò, di cui nuova prole dopo piccolo spazio riceveo." Cf. BALDELLI, _Vita di Gio. Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1806), p. 275.

[20] See F. VILLANI, _Le Vite d' uomini illustri Fiorentini_ (Firenze, 1826). F. Villani was a contemporary of Boccaccio, and succeeded him in the chair founded at Florence for the exposition of the _Divine Comedy_.

[21] See Galletti, _Philippi Villani: Liber de Civitatis Florentiæ famosis civibus ex codice Mediceo Laurentiano, nunc primum editus_, etc. (Firenze, 1847), and on this CALÒ, _Filippo Villani e il Liber de Origine civitatis_, etc. (Rocca S. Casciano, 1904), pp. 154-5.

[22] The son of his "natural father" may mean that Boccaccio di Chellino was not his adoptive father, or it may mean that Giovanni was a bastard. See on this CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 38 _et seq._, and DELLA TORRE, _La Giovinezza di Gio. Boccaccio_ (Città di Castello, 1905), cap. i.

[23] Domenico Bandini Aretino says: "Boccatius pater ejus ... amavit quamdam iuventulam Parisinam, quam prout diligentes Ioannem dicunt quamquam alia communior sit opinio sibi postea uxorem fecit, ex qua genitus est Ioannes." See SOLERTI, _Le vite di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio scritte fino al secolo XVII_ (Milano, 1904). The lives of Boccaccio constitute the third part of the volume; the second of these is Domenico's. Cf. MESSERA, _Le più antiche biografie del Boccaccio_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil._ (1903), XXVII, fasc. iii. See also CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 16, note 1, and ANTONA TRAVERSI, _op. cit._ in _Fansulia della Domencia_, II, 23, where many authors of this opinion are quoted.

[24] Giovanni Acquettino da Prato was a bad poet. His sonnet says: "Nacqui in Firenze al Pozzo Toscanelli." Pozzo Toscanelli was in the S. Felicità quarter, close to the Via Guicciardini.

[25] _St. della Lett. Ital._ (1823), V, part iii. p. 738 _et seq._

[26] _Op. cit._, pp. 277-80.

[27] CORAZZINI, _Lettere edite e inedite di G. Boccaccio_ (Firenze, 1877), p. viii. _et seq._

[28] KOERTING, _Boccaccio's Leben und Werke_ (Leipzig, 1880), p. 67 _et seq._, and _Boccaccio Analekten_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil._ (1881), v. p. 209 _et seq._ If Antona Traversi has disposed of Corazzini's assertions, Crescini seems certainly to have demolished the arguments of Koerting.

[29] All the dates and facts so carefully established by Crescini and Della Torre are really dependent on the date of Boccaccio's birth, 1313, being the true one. This is the corner-stone of their structure. But the story of his illegitimacy and foreign birth was current long before this date was established. It was the commonly received opinion. Why? Doubtless because Boccaccio himself had practically stated so in the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_. That Filippo Villani's Italian translator was dependent on these allegories for his story seems to be proved (cf. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 30); so probably was the general public. The question remains: Was Boccaccio speaking the mere truth concerning himself in these allegories? Filippo Villani himself, as we have seen, believed that he was born at Certaldo; so did Domenico Aretino. For myself, I do not think that enough has been allowed for the indirect influence of Fiammetta in the _Filocolo_ and the _Ameto_. They were written for her--to express his love for her. She was the illegitimate daughter of King Robert of Naples by the wife of the nobleman Conte d'Aquino--a woman of French extraction. It is strange, then, that Boccaccio's story of his birth in the allegories should so closely resemble hers. She doubtless thought herself a very great lady, and was probably prouder of her royal blood than a legitimate princess would have been. But Boccaccio was just the son of a small Florentine trader; and he was a Poet. To proclaim himself--half secretly--illegitimate was a gain to him, a gain in romance. How could a youthful poet, in love with a princess too, announce himself as the son of a petty trader, a mere ordinary bourgeois, to a lady so fine as the blonde Fiammetta? Of course he could not absolutely deny that this was so, especially after his father's visit (1327), and also we must remember that the Florentine trader held, or is supposed to have held, quite a good social position even in feudal Naples. Nevertheless his bourgeois birth did not please the greatest story-teller of Europe. So he invented a romantic birth--he too would be the result of a love-intrigue, even as Fiammetta was. And because he loved her, and therefore wished to be as close to her and as like her as possible, he too would have a French mother. Suppose all this to be true, and that after all Boccaccio is the son of Margherita, the wife of his father; that he was born in wedlock in 1318; that he met Fiammetta not on March 30, 1331 (see Appendix I), but on March 30, 1336, and that he told Petrarch he was born in 1313 because he knew his father was in Paris at that date--this last with his usual realism to clinch the whole story he had told Fiammetta.

[30] In 1318 Boccaccio di Chellino is spoken of as having been a dweller in the quarter of S. Pier Maggiore for some four years. See MANNI, _Istoria del Decameron_ (Firenze, 1742), p. 7, who gives the document. This may mean little, however, for the residence may have been purely formal, and have signified merely that a business was carried on there in his name. But see CRESCINI, _op. cit._, pp. 40 and 41, Note 1, and DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 7-14.

[31] Cf. _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 242-3.

[32] DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 2.

[33] Moreover, as we shall see, the story of the "two bears" which in his allegory followed his father and drove himself out of the house--to Naples--seems to make it necessary that they should all have been living together. See _infra_, p. 14.

[34] In the first page he says: "Vagabondo giovane i Fauni e le Driadi abitatrici del luogo, solea visitare, et elli forse dagli vicini monti avuta antica origine, quasi da carnalità costretto, di ciò avendo memoria, con pietosi affetti gli onorava talvolta...."

[35] The document is given in full in Appendix II. The fact that the parish of S. Pier Maggiore is mentioned proves that when Boccaccio di Chellino was married, he was living therein, for the property was part of the dowry of Margherita di Gian Donato his first wife.

[36] See my _Country Walks About Florence_ (Methuen, 1908), pp. 13-15 Casa di Boccaccio is within sight and almost within hail of Poggio Gherardo, the supposed scene of the first two days of the _Decameron_.

[37] In the _De Genealogiis Deorum_, Lib. XV, cap. x., he says "Non dum ad septimum annum deveneram ... vix prima literarum elementa cognoveram...." At this time he was already composing verses, he says.

[38] Cf. MASSERA, _Le più antiche biografie_ in _Zeitschrift für Rom. Phil._, XXVII, pp. 310-18. But see CRESCINI, _op. cit._, p. 48, note 3; and in reply DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 3, note 5.

[39] "Qui ... ferula ... ab incunabulis puellulos primum grammaticæ gradum tentantes cogere consueverat," writes Boccaccio in the letter to Iacobo Pizzinghe. See CORRAZINI, _Le Lett. ed. e ined. di G. B._ (Firenze, 1877), p 196, and _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, I, 75-6. It was probably the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid that he read with Mazzuoli, though in the _Filocolo_ he speaks of the _Ars Amandi_! The _Metamorphoses_ were read for the sake of the mythology as well as for the exercise in Latin. Cf. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 4.

[40] Cf. HECKER, _Boccaccio Funde_ (Braunschweig, 1902), p. 288, and MASSERA, _op. cit._, p. 310.

[41] DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 5, 6.

[42] In the _Ameto_:--

"Lì non si ride mai se non di rado, La casa oscura e muta, e molto trista Me ritiene e riceve a mal mio grado; Dove la cruda ed orribile vista D' un vecchio freddo, ruvido ed avaro Ogn' ora con affanno più m' attrista."

No doubt, after the gaiety of Naples and its court, the life with an old and poor Florentine merchant seemed dull; and besides, Fiammetta was far away.

[43] _Filocolo_, _ed. cit._, Vol. II, p. 243. He says: "Io semplice e lascivo" (cf. _Paradiso_, v. 82-4) "come già dissi, le pedate dello ingannator padre seguendo, volendo un giorno nella paternale casa entrare, due orsi ferocissimi e terribili mi vidi avanti con gli occhi ardenti desiderosi della mia morte, de' quali dubitando io volsi i passi miei, e da quell' ora innanzi sempre d' entrare in quella dubitai. Ma acciocchè io più vero dica, tanta fu la paura, che abbandonati i paternali campi, in questi boschi venni l' apparato uficio a operare." CRESCINI in _Kritischer Jahresbericht über Fortschrifte der Rom. Phil._ (1898), III, p. 396 _et seq._, takes these two bears to be old Boccaccio and Margherita, but DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, pp. 18-30, asks very aptly how could Boccaccio speak thus of a father he allows in the _Fiammetta_ "per la mia puerizia nel suo grembo teneramente allevata, per l' amor da lui verso di me continuamente portato." Della Torre takes the two bears to be Margherita and her son Francesco, born _ca._ 1321. See _op. cit._, p. 24, and document there quoted.

[44] See Appendix I, where the whole question is discussed. Cf. DELLA TORRE, _op. cit._, p. 30, note 1, and caps. ii. and iii.; CASETTI, _Il Boccaccio a Napoli_ in _Nuova Antologia_ (1875); and DE BLASIIS, _La Dimora di Gio. Boccaccio a Napoli_ in _Arch. St. per le prov. Nap._ (1892), XXII, p. 11 _et seq._