Thursday 22 August 2013

A Boccaccio anniversary and an appropriate manuscript find

This year is the 700th anniversary of the birth of Giovanno Boccaccio, Renaissance writer in both latin and the Italian vernacular, author of the Decameron and friend of Petrarch. Boccaccio was born either in Florence or in nearby Certaldo and although referring to himself as a Florentine, always signed his name as Boccaccio da Certaldo. Certaldo is well worth a visit if you're in the area and hosts the Mercantia, one of the best street theatre festivals in Europe.

Giovanni Boccaccio da Certaldo
Giovanni Boccaccio da Certaldo

Boccaccio was tutored by Giovanni Mazzuoli and received from him an early introduction to the works of Dante (1265 - 1321). In 1326, Boccaccio moved to Naples with his family - his father was a prominent banker. It was in Naples that he realised his true vocation of poetry, despite spending six years studying canon law. Pieces that he wrote while in Naples include Filostrato and Teseida, the sources for Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight's Tale, respectively. He might also have played a role in introducing the Sicilian octave to Florence, where it influenced Petrarch.

Boccaccio began work on the Decameron around 1349 and the work was largely complete by 1352. It was Boccaccio's final effort in literature and one of his last works in Italian. He revised and rewrote the Decameron in 1370–1371 and this manuscript survives to the present day.

During his life, Boccaccio spent considerable amount of time in Venice, Padua, Romagna, Brandenburg, Milan and Avignon, as well as, of course, Florence. Many of these journeys were on Florentine government business and for meetings with Petrarch who became a close friend. Boccaccio died at the age of sixty-two on 21 December 1375, in Certaldo, where he is buried. Following his death, his entire collection of books and manuscripts was donated to the monastery of Santo Spirito, in Florence, where it still resides.

Boccaccio's Decarmeron
A setting for Boccaccio's Decarmeron
By chance, earlier this year, Dr. Guyda Armstrong discovered an uncatalogued manuscript copy of the first version of Laurent de Premierfait's French translation of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, unrecognised and in plain view, at the John Rylands Library of Manchester University. This French humanist and courtier translated the title as Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes. This manuscript is a very rare copy of the 1400 translation. Laurent de Premierfait carried out a second translation in 1409.

De Casibus Virorum Illustrium ("On the Fates of Famous Men") consists of 56 biographies composed in Latin prose in the form of moral stories of the fates of famous people, similar to his work of 106 biographies "On Famous Women". De Casibus is a work in the 'exemplary lives' tradition that began with Plutarch's Parallel Lives, where the tragic biographies of the past are used as a political guide and warning for current rulers. The book is notable for its critique of tyranny and for 400 years was much more widely read that Boccaccio's vernacular works upon which his fame now rests.

Chaucer's The Monk's Tale might have drawn inspiration from De Casibus since Chaucer's incipit reads: "Heer bigynneth the Monkes Tale De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" and many of the characters are the same, but Chaucer credits only Petrarch as a source. Neither of them would have thanked Chaucer for the credit since, unlike much of Chaucer's work, The Monk's Tale is indescribably dreary and boring, in sharp contrast to Boccaccio's compelling stories and forceful latin.

Pasolini's Decameron
One of the few presentable scenes from Pasolini's 1971 film adaptation of nine
stories from Boccaccio's Decameron.
Click here to download the programme of the events taking place in Florence and Certaldo to celebrate Boccaccio's seventh centenary anniversary year.

More about the Boccaccio Museum in Certaldo.

Borgo di Vagli restored mediaeval hamlet in Tuscany
Borgo di Vagli has been authentically restored as a Tuscan vacation hamlet. The residences can be bought in the form of fractional ownerships, making a holiday home in Tuscany possible at modest cost.

Fulvio Di Rosa
All content copyright © Fulvio Di Rosa 2013. All rights reserved.

Mona Lisa, the lady and the painting, once again in the news

I was about to start off like a newspaper reporter by saying that Leonardo da Vinci's painting of Mona Lisa has fascinated the world for the past 400 years, but the truth is that the painting's notoriety is comparatively recent. After Leonardo's death in France in 1519, François I bought the painting and kept it at the Palace of Fontainebleau where it remained until it was given to Louis XIV, who moved it to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was displayed in the Louvre. During the mid-19th century, Théophile Gautier and the Romantic poets had much to say about Mona Lisa as a person and as a painting, but the picture really only began to achieve its current fame after World War I.
A comparison of the Louvre and Prado Mona Lisa portraits
A comparison of the Louvre and Prado Mona Lisa portraits
Although there a numerous copies of Leonardo's Mona Lisa in existence,  the cleaning during 2012 of the copy stored away in the Prado Museum in Madrid has revealed a contemporary copy of great skill and beauty. Infrared reflectography images of the Prado painting show underdrawing similar to that of the Louvre Mona Lisa before it was finished. This suggests that the original and the copy were begun at the same time and painted next to each other in the same studio. All the evidence currently points to either Andrea Salai, who joined Leonardo’s studio in 1490, or Francesco Melzi, who joined around 1506, as the painter. The Prado's curator favours Melzi.

Along with fame came numerous theories about who the subject of the painting was, despite Vasari - who would have known - clearly stating that she was Lisa Gherardini, a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. Some scholars have proposed that Lisa Gherardini was the subject of a different portrait, especially since Vasari specifically comments on the beauty of the eyebrows and eyelashes, of which the Louvre Mona Lisa is famously lacking. In any case, there's little doubt that Lisa Gherardini is portrayed and that she was born in Florence and not at Villa Vignamaggio in Chianti, despite what the owner of that magnificent villa says, since the villa was sold by the Gherardini family 58 years before her birth.

Excavating a skeleton purported to be that of Lisa Gherardini, Mona Lisa.
Excavating a skeleton purported to be that of Lisa Gherardini, Mona Lisa.
This brings us to the current headline-generating antics of Silvano Vinceti, an archaeological flibbertigibbet who, among other things, claimed to have found that bones of Caravaggio in an obscure cemetery crypt in Porto Ercole - by "pure coincidence", during the year of the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio’s death - and to have demonstrated that the model for the Mona Lisa was a man.

He seems to have forgotten this latter hypothesis, having somehow obtained permission to exhume the "remains of Mona Lisa" from among the hundreds of skeletons in a crypt of the former Convent of Saint Ursula (Convento di Sant’Orsola) in Florence. Lisa Gherardini retired to the convent after the death of her husband, herself passing away there at the age of 63. Just a few days ago, Vinceti exhumed remains, which he claims are those of Lisa Gherardini's sons, from the family tomb in the Martyrs' Crypt behind the altar of the Santissima Annunziata Basilica in Florence. All of this he proposes to confirm by DNA comparison between the different sets of bones and, perhaps, the very-much-alive Princesses Strozzi who are descendents of the Gherardini. The grand design behind all this digging and DNA blotting is to identify Lisa Gherardini's skull and to use the wildly unreliable forensic reconstruction technique to recreate her face and confirm or otherwise that Mona Lisa the person is Mona Lisa the painting. One thing we can be sure of, whatever Vinceti comes up with will be sensational, not least in its lack of verisimilitude!
Santissima Annunziata Basilica in Florence
Santissima Annunziata Basilica in Florence where the current excavations are in progress.

Borgo di Vagli restored mediaeval hamlet in Tuscany
Borgo di Vagli has been authentically restored as a Tuscan vacation hamlet. The residences can be bought in the form of fractional ownerships, making a holiday home in Tuscany possible at modest cost.

Fulvio Di Rosa
All content copyright © Fulvio Di Rosa 2013. All rights reserved.

Cortonantiquaria, the Cortona antiques fair held in late August and early September

Everyone interested in buying antiques or simply admiring them should mark their calendars for Cortonantiquaria, the Cortona antiques fair held in late August and early September - 24 August until 8 September in 2013. This antiques fair has been held in Cortona every year since 1963 and is now one of the most prestigious in Italy. The exhibition is housed in the 17th century Palazzo Vagnotti, located in the centre of Cortona, between the Piazza Signorelli and the Piazza del Duomo. I know that this antiques exhibition is a highlight of each year for many owners at Borgo di Vagli and I think we can look forward to a great show again this year!

Cortonantiquaria, the Cortona antiques fair
Palazzo Vagnotti, venue of Cortonantiquaria, the Cortona antiques fair.
The quality of the antiques displayed is very high - many of them are of museum quality - and the range is considerable. The fair initially specialised in furniture as a way to raise awareness of Cortona's flourishing restoration and furniture reproduction workshops, but over the years the antiques offered for sale have come to include not only furniture, but also paintings, engravings, ceramics, jewellery, carpets, bronzes and much more.

Cortona antiques
A dealer's display at the Cortona antiques exhibition.
In addition to the main exhibition, every year there are also lectures, contemporary art and design shows and, of course, wine tastings and gastronomic events to enjoy when you are not scutinising the antiques at Cortonantiquaria. The timing of the fair has also been chosen with care, making it a popular social event following the summer holidays and taking advantage of the beautiful weather usually enjoyed in Cortona at the end of September.

Antique ceramics and fan paintings at Cortonantiquaria
Antique ceramics and fan paintings at Cortonantiquaria.
Cortona also offers an excellent monthly collectables and bric-a-brac market that takes place on the third Sunday of the month in Piazza Signorelli. A similar but much larger bric-a-brac fair in Italy takes place on the first Sunday of the month and the preceding Saturday in nearby Arezzo. Over 500 dealers usually show up, offering a vast range of collectables for sale.

More about Cortona.

Parking in Cortona.

Cortona Restaurant tips:

  • La Bucaccia
  • L'osteria del teatro
  • Pane e vino
  • La loggetta


Borgo di Vagli restored mediaeval hamlet in Tuscany
Borgo di Vagli has been authentically restored as a Tuscan vacation hamlet. The residences can be bought in the form of fractional ownerships, making a holiday home in Tuscany possible at modest cost.

Fulvio Di Rosa
All content copyright © Fulvio Di Rosa 2013. All rights reserved.