Boccaccio the Philosopher: An Epistemology of the Decameron

268 Pages·2017·2.77 MB·English

by  Filippo Andrei (auth.)

T H E N E W M I D D L E A G E S
BOCCACCIO

PHILOSOPHER
the
EPISTEMOLOGY
An of
DECAMERON
the
Filippo Andrei
The New Middle Ages
Series Editor
Bonnie Wheeler
English & Medieval Studies
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX, USA
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Filippo Andrei
Boccaccio the
Philosopher
An Epistemology of the Decameron
Filippo Andrei
International Program in Florence
California State University
Florence, Italy
The New Middle Ages
ISBN 978-3-319-65114-9 ISBN 978-3-319-65115-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-65115-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017951538
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To my parents,
for their love and support
A
cknowledgements
I wish to thank the following people for their help, encouragement,
instruction, and advice: my parents, to whom this work is dedicated
and without whom much in my life would not have been possible; and
my wife, my best reader and critic, who read the entire manuscript and
offered considered advice. I would also like to make a special acknowl-
edgment to several people whose thoughts contributed to the develop-
ment of this work. I am particularly indebted to Albert R. Ascoli, Steven
Botterill, Ignacio E. Navarrete, Joseph Duggan, and Frank Bezner who
have allowed me to seek their advice and criticism. I also received most
valuable help from various scholars and friends, to all of whom I wish
to express my deep appreciation: Michael Papio, Paul Colilli, Giuseppe
Mazzotta, Brenda Deen Schildgen, Karen Williams, Jennifer Mackenzie,
Avy Valladares, and Stephanie Tarnowski, who read and commented on
my drafts from different perspectives.
I am grateful to the University of California, Berkeley, which,
besides being a rich environment for scholarship over these years, sup-
ported my research with the Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship and
the Chancellor’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, and to the Romance
Languages and Literatures Group, which supported the preparation of
this work with a number of grants for travel and research, grants that
helped me spend some time in Italy to consult the archives. Sections of
this work have been presented in earlier versions at several conferences in
the United States, from which I had relevant feedback. Research related
to Chap. 4 was presented at the First Triennial International Boccaccio
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Conference, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2010, and has
been published with title “The Variants of the Honestum: Practical
Philosophy in the Decameron,” in Elsa Filosa and Michael Papio,
eds., Boccaccio in America: 2010 International Boccaccio Conference.
University of Massachusetts Amherst. American Boccaccio Association,
UMass Amherst, April 30—May 1 (Ravenna: Longo Editore, 2012).
An article based on Chap. 3 appeared in Heliotropia 10.1–2 (2013):
1–29 as well as in Michael Papio, ed., Heliotropia 700/10: A Boccaccio
Anniversary Volume (Milano: LED, 2013), with the title “The Motto
and the Enigma: Rhetoric and Knowledge in the Sixth Day of the
Decameron.”
Of the libraries I consulted, I am especially grateful to the Doe
Library, where much of this work was written, and to the Interlibrary
Loan Service, which did an amazing job in providing me with books and
manuscripts otherwise unavailable in Berkeley. I also feel indebted to the
staff of the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence for most valuable assistance.
Finally, I would like to thank the Free Speech Movement Café, which
allowed me to work at my own pace with many relaxing, yet fruitful,
pauses. As a famous saying recites, attributed to Bertrand Russell among
others: “the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
c
ontents
1 The Language of Knowledge in the Decameron 1
Boccaccio as Philosopher 4
Knowledge and Interpretation in the Decameron 8
Some Aspects of the Epistemological Inquiry 14
2 Deified Men and Humanized Gods: The Epistemic
Character of the Fabula 37
Poetry, Secrecy and the Psychology of Language 47
The Humanized Gods: The “Womb of God”
and the Tree of Wisdom 53
Deified Men: The Power of the Mind
and the Function of the Poet 62
3 Boccaccio’s Mountain and the Voyage of the Soul 93
“Con gli occhi riguardando e con la mente” 104
Decameron Second Day 108
The Voyage and Dante’s Mountain 133
4 The Motto and the Enigma: Rhetoric
and Knowledge in the Sixth Day 147
Rhetoric and Dialectics of Oppositions 148
The Motto and the Enigma 150
ix
x CONTENTS
5 Practical Philosophy and Theory of Action
in the Decameron 183
The “Honestum” as a Category of Behavior
in the First Day 184
Practical Reason and Natural Law:
Ethics as Practical Philosophy 194
Conclusion 217
Works Cited 221
Index 251