Filocolo: A double quête

The return journey from Alexandria, which brings Florio and Biancifiore to pass through Naples, Certaldo and Rome, is Boccaccio’s invention and takes up the whole of book V. The innovative “nostos” of the young couple allows Florio to accomplish that process of spiritual and moral transformation  which takes him to full maturity, sanctioned, upon his return to Spain, by the acquisition of the crown. Boccaccio modifies the origin plot, so dear to French chivalrous narrative, doubling the length of the journey, with both the trip there and back. Where the trip in search of his beloved is part of an amorous dimension, making of the protagonist a perfect example of the chivalrous hero, the young couple’s meeting in Rome with the reverend Ilario, who converts Florio to Christianity, give the return journey the imprint of a  peregrinatio Dei.

It is thus that attention is focused on the undisputed protagonist of the story, young  Florio, who, in other stories inspired to the same theme, is only one of the actors in the love story.

Special attention should be addressed, in this hypertrophic narrative, marked by continual digressions and contaminated by motives of a quite different origin - from folklore to scientific erudition, and classical and romance culture – the episode of the “issues of love”. During the trip to Alexandria, Florio visits the court of Naples and is welcomed by its young aristocrats, engaged in the game of courtly love. Thirteen erotic episodes are debated by the group of youths in a way which  anticipates the Decameron, and the fourth and thirteenth issues are echoed in the novellas X, 5 and 4. If for Florio this experience is an occasion in which to complete his mundane and courtly education, for Boccaccio this is an opportunity to sketch out a fresco of Neapolitan youth and enter into the heart of the tale, taking on the guise of Caleon, Fiammetta’s young aspiring lover.