Table Of ContentBOCCACCIO AND EXEMPLARY LITERATURE
This is the first monograph to provide a comprehensive interpreta-
tion of the Decameron’s response to classical and medieval didactic
traditions. Olivia Holmes unearths the rich variety of Boccaccio’s
sources, ranging across Aesopic fables, narrative collections of
Islamicate origin, sermon stories and saints’ lives, and compilations
of historical anecdotes. Examining the Decameron’s sceptical and
sexually permissive contents in relation to medieval notions of nar-
rative exemplarity, the study also considers how they intersect with
current critical assertions of fiction’s power to develop empathy and
emotional intelligence. Holmes argues that Boccaccio provides
readerswiththeopportunitytoexercisebothwhattheancientscalled
“Ethics,” and our contemporaries call “Theory of Mind.” This
account of a vast tradition of tale collections and its provocative
analysis of their workings will appeal to scholars of Italian literature
and medieval studies, as well as to readers interested in evolutionary
understandings ofstorytelling.
teachesMedievalStudiesatBinghamtonUniversity.
Shehasauthoredtwopreviousmonographs:AssemblingtheLyricSelf:
AuthorshipfromTroubadourSongtoItalianPoetryBook(),which
won the American Association of Italian Studies Book Award, and
Dante’sTwoBeloveds:EthicsandEroticsintheDivineComedy().
Published online by Cambridge University Press
FoundingEditor
AlastairMinnis, Yale University
General Editor
Daniel Wakelin, University ofOxford
Editorial Board
Anthony Bale, Birkbeck, University ofLondon
ZygmuntG.Barański, University of Cambridge
Christopher C. Baswell, Barnard College and Columbia University
Mary Carruthers,New YorkUniversity
Rita Copeland, University ofPennsylvania
Roberta Frank, Yale University
Marisa Galvez,Stanford University
AlastairMinnis, Yale University
JocelynWogan-Browne,Fordham University
This series of critical books seeks to cover the whole area of literature written in
the major medieval languages – the main European vernaculars, and medieval
LatinandGreek–duringtheperiodc.–.Itschiefaimistopublishand
stimulate fresh scholarship and criticism on medieval literature, special emphasis
being placed on understanding major works of poetry, prose, and drama in
relation tothecontemporarycultureand learning that fostered them.
Recent titles inthe series
JosephTaylor Writing the North ofEngland inthe Middle Ages
MarkFaulknerANewLiteraryHistoryoftheLongTwelfthCentury:Languageand
Literature Between Old and Middle English
MarkChincaandChristopherYoungLiteraryBeginningsintheEuropeanMiddle
Ages
AndrewM.Richmond Landscape inMiddle English Romance:The Medieval
Imagination and the NaturalWorld
David G.LummusThe City ofPoetry: Imagining the CivicRole ofthePoet in
Fourteenth-Century Italy
Richard Matthew Pollard Imagining the Medieval Afterlife
Christiania Whitehead TheAfterlife of StCuthbert: Place, Textsand Ascetic
Tradition,–
Orietta Da Rold Paper in Medieval England: From Pulp to Fictions
Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt(eds.) The Roman dela Rose and
Thirteenth-Century Thought
George CorbettDante’sChristian Ethics: Purgatory and Its MoralContexts
Acomplete list oftitlesin the series canbe found at the end ofthe volume.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
BOCCACCIO AND
EXEMPLARY LITERATURE
Ethics and Mischief in the Decameron
OLIVIA HOLMES
BinghamtonUniversity
Published online by Cambridge University Press
ShaftesburyRoad,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA
WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia
–,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India
PenangRoad,#-/,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore
CambridgeUniversityPressispartofCambridgeUniversityPress&Assessment,
adepartmentoftheUniversityofCambridge.
WesharetheUniversity’smissiontocontributetosocietythroughthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/
:./
©OliviaHolmes
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisions
ofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytake
placewithoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress&Assessment.
Firstpublished
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
:Holmes,Olivia,author.
:Boccaccioandexemplaryliterature:ethicsandmischiefintheDecameron/OliviaHolmes.
:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,.
|:Cambridgestudiesinmedievalliterature|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
:(print)|(ebook)|
(hardback)|(paperback)|(epub)
::Boccaccio,Giovanni,–.Decamerone.|Exemplainliterature.
|Philosophyofmindinliterature.|Ethicsinliterature.|:Literarycriticism.
:.(print)|(ebook)|/.–dc/eng/
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/
----Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPress&Assessmenthasnoresponsibilityforthepersistence
oraccuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhis
publicationanddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwill
remain,accurateorappropriate.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
È grande errore parlare delle cose del mondo indistintamente ed
assolutamente,eperdirecosí,perregola;perchéquasituttehanno
distinzione ed eccezione per la varietá delle circunstanzie, in le
quali non si possono fermare con una medesima misura.
(Itisagreaterrortospeakofthethingsofthisworldinageneral
and absolute way, that is to say, categorically, since almost all of
them are particular and exceptional due to their differing
circumstances, and one cannot measure them all by the same
standard.)
Francesco Guicciardini
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contents
Acknowledgments page viii
Introduction: Teaching and Misleading
Ethical Fables and Antifeminist Exempla
From Sermon Story to Novella
Lives of Saints; Lives of Sinners
Classical and Vernacular Exempla
Magister Amoris
Afterword in Time of Plague
Notes
Bibliography
Index
vii
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Acknowledgments
In the ten plus years that it has taken me to write this book – in which
I changed universities, academic departments, and even areas of teaching
and service – I have incurred numerous debts. Thanks are especially due
for the crucial assistance of two donne benedette, Marilynn Desmond and
DanaStewart.MyspecialgratitudealsogoestoAlbertAscoli,whoreadthe
book manuscript at a late stage, and whose observations and suggestions
are always productive and enabling. I am grateful as well for the support
andcriticalinsightsofZigBarański,TeoBarolini,SethBerg,K.P.Clarke,
Warren Ginsberg, William J. Kennedy, Richard Lansing, Simone
Marchesi, Penny Marcus, Kristin Phillips-Court, Véronique Plesch, Gina
Psaki,WillRobins,ArielleSaiber,RandyScholtz,MichaelSherberg,Justin
Steinberg, Roberta Strippoli, Jelena Todorović, Alessandro Vettori,
Andrew Walkling, and Gur Zak. Allow me also to recognize the two
anonymous readers of Cambrige University Press, who furnished cogent
and copious critical advice.
Inaddition,IamprofoundlygratefultotheBonnieWheelerFoundation
foratimelyaward,totheInstituteforAdvancedStudiesintheHumanities
atBinghamtonUniversityforasemesterfellowship,andtotheBinghamton
UniversityEnglishDepartmentfortheirwarmwelcomeandbroadideaof
what literature in English entails. I want to thank all my colleagues in the
CenterforMedievalandRenaissanceStudiestoofortheirongoingcollab-
oration, and for making me think. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the
financial assistance provided for this publication by the Harpur College
AdvocacyCouncilFacultyDevelopmentEndowment.
Some materials from Chapter appeared previously, in different for-
mats,in F. Ciabattoni,E. Filosa, andK. Olson, eds.,Boccaccio –
(Ravenna: Longo, ), –, and in S. Ferrara, M. T. Ricci, and É.
Boillet, eds., Boccace, entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance (Paris: Champion,
viii
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Acknowledgements ix
),–.AnearlierversionofpartofChapterappearedinITatti
Studies():–,andanexpansionofanotherpartofthatchapter
is forthcoming in Rivista di Letteratura Tardogotica e Quattrocentesca
(): –. But now it is time for us, like the brigata, to put an
end to words, and to attend to our other pleasures...
Published online by Cambridge University Press
