Boccaccio illustratore e copista di se stesso

Decameron

The drawings in the Parigino

The Parigino italiano 482 code, now at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is a parchment from the second half of the XIV century. The importance of this manuscript of the Decameron was first noted by Barbi and Sampoli-Simonelli[1]. It was recognised to be a youthful copy by Rossi[2], who defines the manuscript as a “first edition” of the hundred novellas. The same and far better documented theory has been put forward by Branca[3], who has recently substantiated his theory with Boccaccio’s other manuscripts.

This thus adds to evidence that would indicate that three manuscripts of the Decameron were made between the 1350s and the poet’s death. The Parisian manuscript would seem to be a youthful one. The copy would also seem to be of particular significance if, as sustained by Branca and Ciardi Dupré[4], it was indeed Boccaccio who did the 17 shaded pen drawings that so finely decorate this code. The manuscript can thus in part be attributed to Boccaccio himself, for the decorations, and this cannot exclude the idea that the author “supervised” this copy done by Giovanni d’Agnolo Capponi. Boccaccio, choosing to illustrate this copy, would seem to have somehow legitimised it, recognising in some way its variations as authentic.

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[1]M. Barbi, La nuova filologia e l'edizione dei nostri scrittori da Dante al Manzoni, Florence 1938, pp. 35-85; M. Sampoli Simonelli, Il Decameron. Problemi e discussioni di critica testuale, “Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa”, XVIII (1949), s. II, pp. 129-172.

[2]A. Rossi, Le fasi dell’elaborazione del Decameron. La diffusione in Italia e in Europa, in Giovanni Boccaccio, Il Decameron. Edizione critica a c. di A. Rossi, Bologna 1977, pp. 583-637, in part. pp. 583-600.

[3]V. Branca, Rapporti fra l’autografo e le testimonianze affini, in Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron. Edizione critica secondo l’autografo hamiltoniano, a c. di V. Branca, Florence 1976, pp. LIV-XCIII; V. Branca-M. Vitale, Il capolavoro del Boccaccio e due diverse redazioni, Venice 2002.

Id., Tradizione delle opere di Giovanni Boccaccio. II, Rome 1991, pp. 263-303; 331-373.

[4]M.G. Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto-V. Branca, Boccaccio “visualizzato” dal Boccaccio, “Studi sul Boccaccio”, 22 (1994), pp. 197-234.