Translations and rewritings

In the proem to the Trecentonovelle Franco Sacchetti says that the Decameron “is so sought after and in demand that even in France and England have they translated it into their own tongue”[1]. A well known point of reference for the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), Boccaccio’s hundred novellas lay the foundations to the western tradition of the novella, acting as a model not just for medieval English literature but also French, as testified to by the translation done in France by  Laurent de Premierfait in the early XV century.

Echoes of the Decameron are to be found in the novellas by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Novelas ejemplares, mainly those of the first days (I, 10; II, 6, 9 and 10). Also female voices of literature such as Christin de Pizan (1364-1430) and Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), were inspired by Boccaccio.

The success of the Decameron and Boccaccio is something of great wealth and importance. Precociously appreciated by contemporaries, as testified to by the many manuscripts of his work, Boccaccio is a protagonist among thinkers of the European renaissance, for the tribute addressed to him by  XV and XVI century men of letters. Within the ambit of Italian tradition the Decameron imposes itself as model for prosaic language, thanks to the Prose della volgar lingua by Pietro Bembo, published in 1525. Amongst the Italian authors most influenced by Boccaccio are Poliziano and Ariosto.

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[1]Franco Sacchetti, Il trecentonovelle, a c. di E. Faccioli, Turin, 1970.