art, music, rivalry and bishops in Boccaccio
Allan Adler
In the second story of the eighth day of the Decameron, it is mentioned
that Monna Belcolore would play the tambourine and sing, "A little of
what you fancy does you good", while dancing a reel or a jig. That is
rather unlike anything I have ever heard about the music of Boccaccio's
time. Can someone point to any collections of Italian music from that
period which have such or similar lyrics?
In the ninth story of the eighth day, the artist Bruno is described as
making a number of paintings for Master Simone. Two are murals on religious
themes but the third one is a painting of the battle between the cats and
the mice. For some reason, I think of such a theme as this third one as
belonging to a much later period. Can someone point to Italian paintings
from Boccaccio's time on themes such as the battle between the cats and
the mice?
Master Simone is portrayed as an educated blockhead from Bologna and
I get the impression from this story and others that there was some kind
of rivalry between Florence (as the troupe in the Decameron seems
to consist of Florentines) and Bologna. Is that impression incorrect?
There are also complaints (5th story, 8th day) about the men from the
Marches who are sent to serve as incompetent judges in Florence? What
are the Marches and what was their relation to Florence at the time,
especially as regards the Florentine judicial system?
One other painting mentioned in the story about Master Simone is that of
a chamber pot over Master Simone's front door, so that people would know
he is a doctor, this being but the smallest sample of the scatalogical
humor associated with him in this story. I gather that this was intended
as a joke, but I am so ignorant that I don't know for certain that doctors
did not put pictures of chamber pots over their doors, nor whether there was
anyone who did, doctor or otherwise, nor whether people ever put paintings
of anything over their doors.
In the fourth story on the eighth day, Emilia begins her story by remarking
that Fiesole, while of great antiquity and once very large, is today
(i.e. Boccaccio's time) in total ruin. But she notes that it has never
been without a bishop and still has one. Was it unusual for a small
city in total ruin to have its own bishop and how would one check whether
this was the case for Fiesole?
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
a...@zurich.ai.mit.edu
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* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial *
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--
Rich Rostrom
>Was it unusual for a small city in total ruin to have its own
>bishop and how would one check whether this was the case for Fiesole?
I think that bishoprics were like boroughs in England. Once
created they were rarely abolished, even if the original
constituency had disappeared. In England this produced the
notorious 'rotten boroughs', some of which still elected
MPs though no one actually lived there. In the Church there
were (and perhaps still are) 'ghost' bishoprics for territories
conquered by Moslems many centuries ago in North Africa.
As for how one would check up on it: there might be records
in the Vatican.
(Some historian should conduct an inventory of all records
held by various ancient institutions. For instance, what
records are held by "Al-Azhar University" in Cairo, which
is said to be the oldest "college" in the Islamic world.
(Scare quotes applied because whatever Al-Azhar is or was,
it was not a college or university in Western sense before
the 20th century.)
--
Never consume legumes before transacting whatsoever | Rich Rostrom
even in the outermost courtyard of a descendant of |
Timur the Terrible. | rrostrom@dummy
--- Avram Davidson, _Dr. Bhumbo Singh_ | 21stcentury.net
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