The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (best classic books of all time txt) 📕

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A silver coin of about the size and value of our silver penny, which, when gilded, would pass muster well enough for a gold florin, unless closely examined. ↩

Il palio, a race anciently run at Florence on St. John’s Day, as that of the Barberi at Rome during the Carnival. ↩

Lit. knowing not whence himself came. ↩

Or, as we should say, “in his own coin.” ↩

A commentator notes that the adjunction to the world of the Maremma (cf. Elijer Goff, “The Irish Question has for some centuries been enjoyed by the universe and other parts”) produces a risible effect and gives the reader to understand that Scalza broaches the question only by way of a joke. The same may be said of the jesting inversion of the word philosophers (phisopholers, Fisofoli) in the next line. ↩

Baronci, the Florentine name for what we should call professional beggars, “mumpers, chanters and Abrahammen,” called Bari and Barocci in other parts of Italy. This story has been a prodigious stumbling-block to former translators, not one of whom appears to have had the slightest idea of Boccaccio’s meaning. ↩

I.e. of the comical fashion of the Cadgers. ↩

An abbreviation of Francesca. ↩

“Or her.” ↩

Lit. to avoid or elude a scorn (fuggire uno scorno). ↩

Cipolla means onion. ↩

The term “well-wisher” (benivogliente), when understood in relation to a woman, is generally equivalent (at least with the older Italian writers) to “lover.” See ante, passim. ↩

Diminutive of contempt of Arrigo, contracted from Arriguccio, i.e. mean little Arrigo. ↩

I.e. whale. ↩

I.e. dirt. ↩

I.e. hog. ↩

A painter of Boccaccio’s time, of whom little or nothing seems to be known. ↩

Perpendo lo coreggia. The exact meaning of this passage is not clear. The commentators make sundry random shots at it, but, as usual, only succeed in making confusion worse confounded. It may perhaps be rendered, “till his wind failed him.” ↩

Said by the commentators to have been an abbey, where they made cheese-soup for all comers twice a week; hence “the cauldron of Altopascio” became a proverb; but quaere is not the name Altopascio (high feeding) a fancy one? ↩

It does not appear to which member of this great house Boccaccio here alludes, but the Châtillons were always rich and magnificent gentlemen, from Gaucher de Châtillon, who followed Philip Augustus to the third crusade, to the great Admiral de Coligny. ↩

Sic (star con altrui); but “being in the service of or dependent upon others” seems to be the probable meaning. ↩

Apparently the Neapolitan town of that name. ↩

The name of a famous tavern in Florence (Florio). ↩

Quaere a place in Florence? One of the commentators, with characteristic carelessness, states that the places mentioned in the preachment of Fra Cipolla (an amusing specimen of the patter-sermon of the mendicant friar of the middle ages, that ecclesiastical Cheap Jack of his day) are all names of streets or places of Florence, a statement which, it is evident to the most cursory reader, is altogether inaccurate. ↩

Apparently the island of that name near Venice. ↩

I.e. nonsense-land. ↩

I.e. Land of Tricks or Cozenage. ↩

I.e. Falsehood, Lie-land. ↩

I.e. paying their way with fine words, instead of coin. ↩

I.e. making sausages of them. ↩

Bachi, drones or maggots. Pastinaca means “parsnip” and is a meaningless addition of Fra Cipolla’s fashion. ↩

A play of words upon the primary meaning (winged things) of the word pennate, hedge-bills. ↩

I.e. The Word [made] flesh. Get-thee-to-the-windows is only a patter tag. ↩

Or Slopes or Coasts (piaggie). ↩

? ↩

Industria in the old sense of ingenuity, skilful procurement, etc. ↩

I.e. the tale-telling. ↩

Lit. the northern chariot (carro di tramontana); quaere the Great Bear? ↩

Alluding to the subject fixed for the next day’s discourse, as who should say, “Have you begun already to play tricks upon us men in very deed, ere you tell about them in words?” ↩

See note 162 in the fourth story of Day 3. ↩

I.e. pene arrecto. ↩

I.e. a fattened capon well larded. ↩

I.e. eggs. ↩

So called from the figure of a lily stamped on the coin; cf. our rose-nobles. ↩

I.e. the discarded vanities aforesaid. ↩

I.e. the other ex votos. ↩

There is apparently some satirical allusion here, which I cannot undertake to explain. ↩

Syn. professor of the liberal arts (artista). ↩

I.e. inhabitants of Arezzo. ↩

Riporre, possibly a mistake for riportare, to fetch back. ↩

Lit. wished her all his weal. ↩

Boccaccio writes carelessly “for aught” (altro), which makes nonsense of the passage.