The origins of the ottava rima

In the Filostrato, in the Teseida and in the Ninfale fiesolano Boccaccio uses the meter known as ottava rima. The origins of this meter have long been debated. In particular, the debate has centred on whether it was Boccaccio who invented the meter, as sustained by some, among whom, Dionisotti, Roncaglia, Picone, Gorni and De Robertis, and those who instead see in Boccaccio only a brilliant interpreter, capable of conferring literary dignity to a form inherited from poets of the oral tradition, such as Balduino[1]. Uncertainty as to when the Filostrato was written and the impossibility of knowing the date of composition of the oldest of the poems in octave ever discovered, the Cantare di Fiorio e Biancifiore, which has reached posterity thanks to a transcription done in 1343, have further animated this querelle.

Recently, Lucia Battaglia Ricci[2] has produced new material for reflection, re-evaluating  the role of epigraphic evidence available.  In the verses that accompany the cycle of frescoes on the Camposanto Vecchio di Pisa (Pisa’s old cemetery), known as Trionfo della morte (Triumph of death), we indeed find octaves in hendecasyllables.  Even though the unknown poet does not limit himself to the use of standard forms, with a rhythmic alternation of the type ABABABCC, but ventures forth into other solutions, adopting forms of the type AABBCCDD and ABABCDCD, it cannot be denied that evidence points to the ottava rima being rooted in the poetry of popular oral tradition. The verses about the cemetery can credibly be dated in the 1330s and would thus have been written before Boccaccio wrote the Filostrato.

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[1]C. Dionisotti, Appunti su antichi testi, “Italia Medioevale e Umanistica”, 7 (1964), pp. 99-131; A. Roncaglia, Per una storia dell’ottava rima, “Cultura Neolatina”, 25 (1965), pp. 5-14; M. Picone, Boccaccio e la codificazione dell’ottava, in Boccaccio: secoli di vita. Documents from the International Conference: Boccaccio 1975, University of California, Los Angeles, 17-19 October 1975, a c. di M. Cottino Jones - E.F. Tuttle, Ravenna 1977, pp. 53-65; G. Gorni, Un’ipotesi sull’origine dell’ottava rima, “Metrica”, 1 (1978), pp. 79-84 ; Id., Metrica e analisi letteraria, Bologna 1993, p. 162; A. Balduino, “Pater semper incertus”. Ancora sulle origini dell’ottava rima, “Metrica”, 3 (1984), pp. 283-390.

[2]L. Battaglia Ricci, Boccaccio, Rome 2000, pp.  91-94.