Amorosa visione

A philosophical interpretation

The allegorical plot of the Amorosa visione or Amorous vision is based on the models of Roman de la Rose, and the works of the school of Chartres and its antecedents in the vernacular the Intelligenza and the Tesoretto, with which it shares the initial condition of the narrative, represented by the protagonist’s dream-vision, the image of the castle and that of the garden. This literary tradition is vivified by Boccaccio thanks to the addition of iconographic links, towards which he shows himself to be most sensitive. In the allegorical frescoes of Boccaccio’s triumphs one can perceive echoes of Giotto’s paintings, both of the Cathedral of Assisi and the Neapolitan period; nor can one deny the presence of those sensations transmitted by the Triumph of death of the cemetery of Pisa or the fresco of the Buongoverno at the palace in Siena. Depicted through a continuous confrontation with themes and characters from the Commedia, these elements confer to the Amorosa visione a particular charm, soon picked up by Petrarch’s  Triumphs.

On the recondite meaning of the work scholars have much pondered. If the more extreme suggest that there is a recondite wish to write a burlesque of the poem by Dante[1], one cannot deny that the earthly values celebrated, above all with the exaltation of the poet’s love for Fiammetta, make of this narrative more a worldly parody of Dantean eschatology. A reading that includes Diana’s Hunt and the Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine could justify the hypothesis of recognising, within the triptych that these would form together with the Amorosa visione, the start to a palingenetic and initiatory pursuit, inspired by Neoplatonism, or perhaps the construction of a philosophical allegory along the lines of Averroes[2]. Ockham has also been cited as being among the possible philosophical models; and Boccaccio does indeed already show great esteem for him  in his early epistle in Latin Mavortis Milex[3].

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[1]F. Petrucci Nardelli, L’Amorosa visione rivisitata, “Quaderni medievali”, 24 (1987), pp. 57-75.

[2]P. Orvieto, Boccaccio mediatore di generi o dell’allegoria d’amore, “Interpres”, 2 (1979), pp. 7-104; G. Gagliardi, Giovanni Boccaccio. Poeta Filosofo Averroista, Soveria Mannelli 1999.

[3]K. Flasch, Poesia dopo la peste. Saggio su Boccaccio, Rome-Bari 1995. To view these philosophical letters cfr. L. Battaglia Ricci, Boccaccio, Rome 2000, p. 106 e sgg.