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Italian Fables in Verse
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Before the revival of Greek learning in the fifteenth century, the Æsopic fables of classical antiquity were known in Europe through Latin collections derived from Phædrus. Two of these collections were particularly well known; one which goes under the name of Romulus, written in prose in the tenth century; and a metrical version of the larger part of Romulus, written in the twelfth century. This metrical collection, called in the Middle Ages Esopus, is now ascribed to Walter of England, but is often called Anonymus Neveleti. Another metrical version of Romulus was made a little later by Alexander Neckam, and the fables of Avianus, also, were known to some extent. These collections, with numerous recensions and derivatives in Latin, and translations into many different languages, form a body of written fable-literature whose development can for the most part be clearly traced. At the same time, beast-fables were extensively employed in school and pulpit, and were continually repeated for entertainment as well as for instruction. Thus there was current all over Europe a great mass of fable-literature in oral tradition. The oral versions came in part from the written fable-books; others originated as folk-tales in medieval Europe; others had descended orally from ancient Greece, or had been brought from the Orient. Many are still current among the people in all parts of Europe, and beyond. From this mass of traditional material, heterogeneous collections of popular stories, including beast-fables, were reduced to writing in Latin and in other languages. An example of this process is found in the Esope of Marie de France, the earliest known fable-book in a modern vernacular, which was translated into French in the twelfth century from an English work which is now lost. Forty of Marie's fables, less than two-fifths of the whole number, came from a recension of the original Romulus called Romulus Nilantii; the others from popular stories of various kinds. Similarly, the important Æsop of Heinrich Steinhöwel contains the Romulus fables in four books, followed by seventeen fables called Extravagantes, others from the recently published Latin version of the Greek fables, from Avianus, from the Disciplina Clericalis of Petrus Alphonsus, and from Poggio,—in all, nine books, printed in Latin with a German translation about 1480, and speedily translated into many languages (including English, by Caxton in 1484, from the French version). The Extravagantes, like other collections, and like the episodes of the beast-epic (little known in Italy), came from popular tradition. Many writers show by incidental references that they were familiar with fables, although they may not have regarded them as worthy of serious attention,—writers like Dante, and his commentator Benvenuto da Imola. Moreover, the animal-lore of the bestiaries and of works like the Fiore di Virtù is closely akin to that of the fables. It is evident, then, that the collections descended from Phædrus, important though they were, represented but a fraction of the fable-literature that was current in the Middle Ages.
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References
page 227 note 1 M. P. Brush, The Isopo Laurenziano, Columbus, 1899 (Johns Hopkins dissertation).
page 227 note 2 G. Ghivizzani, Il Volgarizzamento delle Favole di Galfredo, Bologna, 1866.
page 227 note 3 L. Hervieux, Les Fabulistes latins, vol. i, Paris, 1883; 2d ed., 1893.
page 227 note 4 L'Esopo di Francesco del Tuppo, Firenze, 1886 (selections, with introduction by C. de Lollis).
page 228 note 1 Cf. K. McKenzie, An Italian Fable, its sources and its history, in Modern Philology, vol. i, no. 4 (April, 1904), pp. 497–524.
page 228 note 2 Under this number are included six volumes; the first volume contains 44 folios, written in the 15th century; ff. 1a-2b, “Le beleze di merchato veehio” (by Antonio Pucci); ff. 3a–36b, the fables, without title; ff. 37a-38b, “Epistola di santo bernardo;” ff. 39a-41a, “Anoie” (Le Noie di Antonio Pucci; published in his Poesie, vol. iv, pp. 275–285); ff. 41b-44b, “Chalendario” and arithmetical problems. The fables, each one illustrated by a picture, originally numbered 63; but eight folios have been lost, carrying with them, in whole or in part, some fourteen fables. The remaining folios are numbered continuously.
page 228 note 3 In 1496 in connection with the translation in sonnet form by Accio Zucchi: see Brush, op. cit., p. 31. In 1778 at Florence from the Cod. Farsetti (Brush, no. 26); in 1811 at Padova from the Cod. Mocenigo (Brush, no. 25); in 1864 at Florence from the Cod. Laurenziano (Brush, no. 3). These are the important editions, the others being mere reprints. A thorough study of the mss. and a critical edition are much to be desired.
page 228 note 4 Op. cit.
page 229 note 1 Published by E. Monaci, Apologhi verseggiati in antico volgare reatino, Roma, 1894 (Rendiconti della R. Accademia dei Lincei).
page 229 note 2 See Brush, Hervieux, and de Lollis, works cited. I know nothing about Caffarello except what is stated by de Lollis, p. 15; and by Zambrini, Opere volgari a stampa, 3d edition, p. 71 (with quotation), 4th ed., p. 209.
page 229 note 3 Cod. Laurenziano 649, which is called by Brush Laur. ii (with 57 fables, of which three are not from Marie); Cod. Palatino 200 in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence is likewise unedited. Cod. Riccardiano 1088 was published by Rigoli, Volgarizzamento dalle Favole di Esopo, Firenze, 1818 (54 fables); Cod. Palatino 92 già Guadagni, by S. Bongi and others, Favole di Esopo in volgare, Lucca, Giusti, 1864 (46 fables); Cod. Laurenziano xlii. 30 by Brush, op. cit. (46 fables). Some of these fables were reprinted by Ghivizzani, op. cit., and by L. del Prete, Favole Esopiane raccolte dai Volgarizzamenti, Milano, 1869. See also Mall, Zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Fabellitteratur, in Zeitschrift f. Rom. Philol., ix; and Warnke, Die Fabeln der Marie de France, Halle, 1898.
page 230 note 1 For the text of the fables and full bibliographical information, see K. McKenzie, Unpublished manuscripts of Italian Bestiaries, in Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. xx, pp. 380–433 (1905). A Venetian version of the bestiary, with eleven of the fables, and an account of about half of the manuscripts, were published by Goldstaub und Wendriner, Ein Tosco- Venezianischer Bestiarius, Halle, 1892.
page 230 note 2 Cod. Hamilton 390, now in Berlin, containing a collection of examples published by Tobler, Lateinische Beispielsammlung mit Bildern, in Zeitschrift f. Romanische Philologie, xii, 57–88.
page 230 note 3 See article cited, Pub. of Mod. Lang. Assn., xx, pp. 385, 431.
page 230 note 4 Trattati religiosi e Libro de li Exempli, ed. Ulrich, Bologna, 1891, no. 36; also in Romania, vol. xiii.
page 230 note 5 See P. Fanfani, Scritti inediti: una lettera di A. Lancia e due favole di Esopo, in L'Etruria, vol. i, pp. 103–121 (1851). Fanfani copied the fables from a 14th century ms. in the Riccardiana, but he does not give its number; he ascribes them to Boccaccio, but without any convincing reason.
page 231 note 1 See Frati, Indice delle Carte di P. Bilancioni, in Propugnatore, xxv, ii, pp. 279–301. This useful index mentions only these two of our fables, and does not cite the mss. from which I have copied the text; it does cite a number of mss. that I have not seen, and it ascribes these sonnets to Pucci.
page 231 note 2 See L. Biadene, Morfologia del sonetto, in Studj di Filologia Romanza, iv, pp. 72–77; and Poesie di Antonio Pucci, vol. iv, pp. 286–92, Firenze, 1775 (=Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani, tom. vi).
page 232 note 1 See works already cited: Ghivizzani, p. clxxi; Hervieux, 2d ed., i, 641; Brush, pp. 15, 39; and also Una Favola Esopiana in versi del secolo xv, Livorno, 1870 [published by O. Targioni-Tozzetti, per nozze]. Cf. K. McKenzie in Modern Philology, i, p. 497.
page 232 note 2 Aside from the fables, these sonnets are as follows:
f. 69b Florenza benchio sia menipossente
page 232 note 69b Figliolo mio facche tussia leale
page 232 note 70a Non fa maggiore more sabato santo
page 232 note 70b Senpre si disse chun fa danno acciento
page 232 note 73a Sonetto di petrarcha
Rotto e lalta cholonna el verde lauro
page 232 note 73b I fra minori della povera vita
page 232 note 73b I priegho idio chellunga e buona vita
page 232 note 74a Itirimeno il piu nobile ronzino
page 233 note 1 The canzone is thus described in the Rubriche: “Sonetto cioe una chanzone chome uno confortava i fiorentini quando avevano la guerra chol ducha di melano;” it begins: “Firenze mia io temo chetti rincrescha.” The sonetto (f. 92a) begins: “Sio avessi saputo quelo chio so.”
page 233 note 2 This manuscript, which we may call “R,” begins with a poem in ottava rima, of which the first three 3. have been lost; the first line preserved (f. 76a, also marked “4”) is:
E dettogli la dama questo motto.
The poem ends on f. 93b: “finito e libro doriente e fatto fu per ant pucci.” Another begins immediately:
Chominca la nobilta di firenze fato per deto ant
Settantatre milletrecento chorrendo
mi veggio vecchio e non mi dicie il chore ….
page 234 note 1 Erroneous descriptions of these three fables are given in the works already cited,—Ghivizzani, p. clxvi; Hervieux, i, p. 638; Brush, pp. 21, 39.
page 234 note 2 There are 145 folios, written with two columns to the page. The fable comes on f. 130a. It is preceded by “Trionfi fatti per f. pretarcha,” and followed by “Sonetti fatti per l'auuta di Pisa.” On ff. 28a-46b is: “La scriptura di tutti i papi …”. The last pope mentioned is “Eugenio papa quarto …. e finalmente a di 23 di febraio 1446 il detto papa eugenio mori in roma …. “This text I cal] “Ba.”
page 234 note 3 For instance, one describing a fight between a cat and a kite, beginning:
Un ghatto si dormia insun un tetto,
e un nibbio a chui parea che fosse morto
gli die di piglio ….
This is found, e. g., in Ma (f. 175b; see below); in Doni's edition of the Rime del Burchiello, 1553, p. 190, it is accompanied by the comment that Burchiello often wrote verses on very trivial subjects.
page 235 note 1 See notes with the text, below.
page 235 note 2 This ms. of 116 ff. is dated at the end: “Finis Deo gratias Die xxvi ianuarij hora tertia iam preterita. M. cccc. lxxiij.” The 14 fables from Marie (unedited from this text) are on ff. 31a-34b (cf. Brush, op. cit.), followed by several blank pages.
page 235 note 3 This manuscript, which I call “Rb,” was mentioned by Targioni-Tozzetti in the edition of the only one of the fables in terza rima (no. 2) which has hitherto been published: Una Favola Esopiana in versi del secolo xv, Livorno, 1870, p. 15. It was described by Pio Rajna in editing two of the poems contained in it: 1 Cantari di Carduino giuntovi quello di Tristano e Lancielotto, Bologna, 1873 (Scelta di Curiosità, 135). From it have also been published La Lusignacca (Scelta, 10); Cantare di Madonna Leonessa (Scelta, 89); and Pucci's Gismirante (by F. Corazzini, Miscellanea di cose inedite, Firenze, 1853, pp. 275 ff.). Cf. Volpi, Il Trecento, pp. 217, 271.