A summa in taste for the ancient and erudite

A taste for what is ancient and erudite, which is evident in the compilation of the De mulieribus and the De casibus is confirmed in the Genealogie deorum gentilium as a first work of Boccaccio’s maturity.

This vast summa or collection in Latin contains in thirteen books the pagan myths, on the basis of the model of the Genealogie by Paolo da Perugia. Each book follows in its exposition the figurative scheme of the arbor, and, centred upon one family, first outlines its descent, to then look at the single members and describe their qualities.

In the treatment, which goes into minute detail, much is made of the sources for the information given, which are always cited with precision. The collection of works Boccaccio went through in order to compile this mythological encyclopaedia was vast. On the one hand there were all the classical authors, Greek and Latin (Aristotle, Plato, Homer, Pliny, Martial, Tacitus), but there are also many reference to later writers, such as Isidor and Rabano Mauro, and indeed contemporaries, such as Petrarch and Leonzio Pilato. Thanks to the teachings of the friar from Calabria, who Boccaccio hosted in Florence as of the end of 1359, ensuring that he taught in the studio in Florence for two years, Greek culture officially entered the life of the nascent community of Tuscan humanists, as is recalled with pride in a famous piece from Genalogie: XV, VII, 5-6[1].

To the first thirteen books, composed upon an invitation from Hugo IV of Lusignano, King of Cyprus and dedicatory for the work, there followed an appendix on the value of poetry (XIV) and on the importance of literary work (XV). If the main part of the work can be said to have been completed between 1350 and 1359, the last two books were added before 1367.

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[1]Genealogie deorum gentilium, ed. V. Zaccaria, in All the works of  Giovanni Boccaccio. ed. V. Branca, vol. 7-8.2, Milan 1998, pp. 1540-1544

Genealogie deorum, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea laurenziana, ms. Pluteo 52.9, c. 11v. Boccaccio visualizzato: narrare per parole e per immagini fra Medioevo e Rinascimento, a c. di V. Branca, Turin 1999, vol. II, p. 58.