II. The alternating vicissitudes of Fortune

Filomena governs the narrative of day II of the Decameron, centred upon the presentation of infelicitous and dangerous situations that unexpectedly end positively. The theme of Fortune is the link between the various cases the subject of the most “adventurous” of the novelistic decury of the Decameron. The tales told have a variety of geographical settings, from Treviso to the Polesine (1 e 2), from England to Corfu (3, 8 e 4), from Naples to Corrado Malaspina’s Lunigiana (5 e 6), from Genoa to Monaco (9 e 10), apart Alatiel’s oriental peregrinatio (7), which, alone, touches Majorca, the Peloponnesus, Egina, the island of Chios, Izmir, Rhodes and Cyprus. The concept of voyage becomes the central aspect to the theme of the day and takes on the metaphorical connotation of a nostos, that is to say a return, after many mishaps, to happiness, as prescribed by the narrative parable that is the set theme for the day[1]. Much is here owed to the model of the Alexandrian romance and picaresque adventure, as can be clearly seen with the story of Alatiel Andreuccio’s Neapolitan misadventure. The irruption of the presence of the figure of the merchant[2], who appears as many as five times in the second day (Rinaldo d’Asti in 2, Landolfo Rufolo in 4, Andreuccio da Perugia in 5, Bernabò and Ambruogiuolo in 9), marks a twisting of the romance quête, used ironically in the Decameron to tell of the material gain won by a character of a highly worldly episode. It is thus that Landolfo Rufolo’s (4) shipwreck ends with the finding of a box full of jewels and this object acts as a trait d’union with Andreuccio’s novella (5) that follows, who, having gone to Naples to buy horses is robbed but manages nevertheless to strike a deal in his favour acquiring a precious ruby.

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[1]S. Zatti, Il mercante sulla ruota: la seconda giornata, in Introduzione al Decameron, a c. di M. Picone-M. Mesirca, Firenze 2004, pp. 79-97, in part. p. 96.

[2]V. Branca, Boccaccio medievale e nuovi studi sul Decameron, Florence 1990⁷

Gualtieri’s final apotheosis (II, 8). Pen and water colour drawing, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, ms. It. 63, c. 70r.