Caccia di Diana or Diana’s hunt

This short poem in terzine in the style of Dante made up of 18 cantos is traditionally dated 1334. The ladies of Neapolitan aristocracy are presented as huntresses in a hunting outing in honour of Diana. When the time came to offer Jove the preys, as per the goddess’s will, the noble ladies however refuse to make the sacrifice, invoking the authority of Venus. There follows a metamorphosis of the animals caught who turn into young lovers, decreeing the final victory of the goddess of love.

The fulcrum to the tale is certainly the juxtaposition of Diana against Venus, a topical dichotomy in classical tradition since Euripides’ Hyppolitus. And Greek and Roman literary antecedents can also be invoked for the other structural element of the poem,  which the metamorphosis of the animals caught into men.  The choice of making the noblewomen of Naples central to the story, attributing them the role of protagonists, is an expedient with which to make contemporary traditional themes and, at the same time, is a valid solution for projecting the refined way of life of the Angevin court into a literary dimension outside time, sanctioning its customs and rituals in a celebrative way. The list of Neapolitan ladies,  to be found in verses I, 16-45[1], in based on the model of the Dantean sirvente. It was to this metric form that the list of beautiful women was traditionally entrusted and Dante himself recalls in the Vita Nova: 2[2] having celebrated sixty among the most beautiful of his female fellow citizens. The Florentine ladies of 1334, of remarkable beauty, are also addressed by Antonio Pucci, Giovanni’s poetic correspondent, listing them in a famous sirvente. Boccaccio himself compiled two such lists of lovely ladies, both in the ternary  Contento quasi ne’ pensier d’amore (Rime: LXIX[3]) and in Amorosa visione (XL-XLV) or amorous vision.

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[1]Caccia di Diana, ed. V. Branca, in Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio. Ed. V. Branca, vol. 1, Milan 1967, pp. 15-16.

[2]Dante Alighieri, Vita Nova, ed. G. Gorni, Turin, 1996, p. 32.

[3]Rime, ed V. Branca, in Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio. Ed. V. Branca, vol. 5.1, Milan 1992, pp. 64-66.