Filostrato: A love of the Trojan cycle

The dating of the Filostrato, “vanquished by love”, according to Boccaccio’s somewhat approximate Greek, is a matter of controversy. Its attribution to 1335, proposed by Vittore Branca and Pier Giorgio Ricci[1], has been contested and the traditional chronology, which dates this poem in ottave or octaves circa 1338-1339,which means it was in any case written after the Filocolo, is the one today most broadly accepted. The source of inspiration for the thin plot of this booklet is Homeric literature. Out o the numerous episodes of the war of Troy Boccaccio chose to highlight a marginal event, the one concerning the love of Troilus, son of Priam, and Cresida, daughter of the soothsayer Calcante. The actual texts of reference were medieval rewritings of the Trojan cycle,  which are the apocrypha Cretan Ditti and Frisian Darete. Boccaccio probably used as a source the Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure and the Historia destructionis Troie by Guido delle Colonne, in their respective vernacular versions, by Binduccio dello Scelto and Filippo Ceffi.

Troilus falls in love with the lovely widow Cresida. She returns his love, and they have a passionate amorous relationship. Thanks to an exchange of prisoners, Cresida is returned to her father, who had found safety in the Greek camp after having foretold the fall of Troy. Here she is assigned to Diomedes, who falls in love with his beautiful prisoner, who returns his affections. Troilus is devastated by the separation and all the more so when he starts suspecting his beloved’s betrayal. When he sees the gold clasp he had given Cresida pinned upon Diomedes’ cloths Troilus is fired by a thirst for vengeance that leads him to seek vengeance in the field of battle. His bravery is however cut short by Achilles, who kills him.

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[1]Giovanni Boccaccio, Filostrato, ed. V. Branca, in Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, II, pp. 3-228 e pp. 839-872, Milan 1964; P.G. Ricci, Studi sulla vita e le opere del Boccaccio, Milan-Naples 1985, pp. 38-49.