Giovanni Boccaccio

In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy.

Giovanni Boccaccio (16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was a Florentine poet and story-writer who helped to initiate the humanist movement. His most famous work is The Decameron, a collection of 100 novelle or tales.

Quotes

• Se medesimi esaltando con parole da fare per istomacaggine le pietre saltar del muro e fuggirsi.
  • They boosted themselves with such nauseating self-praise as to make the stones jump out of the walls and flee.
  • Il Corbaccio (c. 1355), "The Labyrinth of Love" (tr. Cartier)

• Come del morire.
  • As certain as thou art of death.
  • Il Filostrato (c. 1335–40), pt. 4, st. 140 (tr. Griffin and Myrick)

    Cf. "As sure as death."—Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour (1598), act 2, sc. 1

• Giovine donna è mobile, e vogliosa
  È negli amanti molti, e sua bellezza
  Estima più ch'allo specchio, e pomposa
  Ha vanagloria di sua giovinezza;
  La qual quanto piacevole e vezzosa
  È più, cotanto più seco l'apprezza:
  Virtù non sente, né conoscimento,
  Volubil sempre come foglia al vento.
  • A young woman is fickle and is desirous of many lovers, and her beauty she esteemeth more than it is in her mirror, and abounding vainglory hath she in her youth, which is all the more pleasing and attractive the more she judgeth it in her own mind. She hath no feeling for virtue or reason, inconstant ever as leaf in the wind.
  • Il Filostrato (c. 1335–40), pt. 8, st. 30 (tr. Griffin and Myrick)

    Cf. "La donna è mobile", from Rigoletto (1851), act 3

• La gentilezza non si può lasciar in eredità, se non come le virtù, le scienze, la santità, e così fatte cose.
  • Nobility cannot descend to us as an inheritance, except as do virtue, knowledge, holiness, and such like things.
  • Il Laberinto d'Amore (ed. Firenze, 1826, p. 176) (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Quale asino dà in parete cotale riceve.
  • The ass gets back from the wall as good as he gives.
  • Il Laberinto d'Amore (ed. Firenze, 1826, p. 155) (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• It is annoying and impossible to suffer proud women, because in general Nature has given men proud and high spirits, while it has made women humble in character and submissive, more apt for delicate things than for ruling.
  • De Mulieribus Claris (1362), ch. 14: "Niobe, Queen of Thebes" (tr. Guarino)

The Decameron (c. 1350)

Do as we say, not as we do.

Sin that's hidden is half forgiven.

A sweet little mouth with lips like rubies.

Whereas a single cock is quite sufficient for ten hens, ten men are hard put to satisfy one woman.

• Non come uomini, ma quasi come bestie, morieno.
  • Dying more like animals than human beings.
  • First Day, Introduction (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• Natural ragione è di ciascuno che ci nasce, la sua vita, quanto può, aiutare e conservare e difendere.
  • Every person born into this world has a natural right to sustain, preserve, and defend his own life to the best of his ability.
  • First Day, Introduction (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    It is the natural instinct of every creature that is born, to foster, preserve and defend his own life. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Peccato celato e mezzo perdonato.
  • A sin that's hidden is half forgiven.
  • First Day, Fourth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    Sin concealed is half pardoned (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Le cose mal fatte e di gran tempo passate son più agevoli a riprendere che ad emendare.
  • Wrongs committed in the distant past are far easier to condemn than to rectify.
  • Second Day, Fifth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    Things ill done in times long past are far more easily censured than amended. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Bocca baciata non perde ventura, anzi rinnuova come fa la luna.
  • A kissed mouth doesn't lose its freshness, for like the moon it always renews itself.
  • Second Day, Seventh Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• Lo ingannatore rimane a pié dello ingannato.
  • The deceived has the better of the deceiver.
  • Second Day, Ninth Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

    Cf. Sacchetti, Novella XVIII: Spesse volte l'ingannatore rimane a piede dell' ingannato.

• Io ho inteso che un gallo basta assai bene a diece galline, ma che diece uomini posson male o con fatica una femina sodisfare.
  • I have always been given to understand…that whereas a single cock is quite sufficient for ten hens, ten men are hard put to satisfy one woman.
  • Third Day, First Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• La gente è più acconcia a credere il male che il bene.
  • People are more inclined to believe in bad intentions than in good ones.
  • Third Day, Sixth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    The world is readier to believe evil than good. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Fate quello che noi diciamo e non quello che noi facciamo.
  • Do as we say, not as we do.
  • Third Day, Seventh Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• Sola la miseria è senza invidia nelle cose presenti.
  • In the affairs of this world, poverty alone is without envy.
  • Fourth Day, Introduction (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    As things are now, only absolute misery is free from envy. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Chi è reo e buono è tenuto
  Può fare il male e non è creduto.
  • He who is wicked and held to be good, can cheat because no one imagines he would.
  • Fourth Day, Second Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam); quoting a proverb

    Whoso is bad, and is as good received,
    May evil do and will not be believed. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Come la copia delle cose genera fastidio, cosl l'esser le desiderate negate moltiplica l'appetito.
  • While superfluity engenders disgust, appetite is but whetted when fruit is forbidden.
  • Fourth Day, Third Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

    As a plethora of good things generates satiety, so does the denial of our wants increase our appetite. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Una boccuccia piccolina, le cui labbra parevan due rubinetti.
  • A sweet little mouth with lips like rubies.
  • Fourth Day, Conclusion (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• E poco appresso levatasi la luna, e 'l tempo essendo chiarissimo, [egli] vegghiava.
  • Shortly afterwards the moon rose with a very clear sky, and [he] kept watch.
  • Fifth Day, Third Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

• Se egli fu lieto assai, la letizia della giovane non fu minore.
  • And if his own joy knew no bounds, the girl was no less delighted on seeing him.
  • Fifth Day, Third Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• Uno amore...a lieto fin pervenuto, in una novelletta assai piccola intendo di raccontarvi.
  • I propose to tell you a very brief tale about a love which...ran a smooth course to its happy conclusion.
  • Fifth Day, Fourth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

• Ci cacciano in cucina a dir delle favole colla gatta.
  • They banish us to the kitchen, there to tell stories to the cat.
  • Fifth Day, Tenth Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

• Essere la natura de' motti cotale, che essi come la pecora morde deono cosi mordere l'uditore, e non come 'l cane: percio che, se come cane mordesse il motto, non sarebbe motto, ma villania.
  • The nature of wit is such that its bite must be like that of a sheep rather than a dog, for if it were to bite the listener like a dog, it would no longer be wit but abuse.
  • Sixth Day, Third Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    The nature of a witticism is this, that it nips the hearer like a sheep, does not bite him like a dog: for if a witticism were to bite like a dog, it would no longer be witty, but malicious. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Amor, s’io posso uscir de’ tuoi artigli,
  appena creder posso
  che alcuno altro uncin mai piú mi pigli.
  • If of thy talons, Love, be quit I may,
    I deem it scarce can be
    But other fangs I may elude for aye.
  • Sixth Day, Tenth Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

• Sempre non può l' uomo un cibo, ma talvolta desidera di variare.
  • It frequently happens that people grow tired of always eating the same food, and desire a change of diet.
  • Seventh Day, Sixth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)
  • A man cannot always live on the same food, but must from time to time vary his diet. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Per lo primo colpo non cade la quercia.
  • An oak is not felled by a single blow of the axe.
  • Seventh Day, Ninth Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

    The oak does not fall at the first stroke. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Ogni giusto re primo servatore dee essere delle leggi fatte da lui.
  • A just king must be the first to observe those laws that he has himself prescribed.
  • Seventh Day, Tenth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    Every just ruler must observe the laws made by himself. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Le forze della penna sono troppo maggiori che coloro non estimano che quelle con conoscimento provato non hanno.
  • The power of the pen is far greater than those people suppose who have not proved it by experience.
  • Eighth Day, Seventh Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

    The power of the pen is far greater than those imagine who have not proved it by experience. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Chi mal ti vuol, mal ti sogna.
  • Who means ill, dreams ill.
  • Ninth Day, Seventh Story (tr. J. M. Rigg)

    Who loves you not, has no thought for you. (tr. Harbottle and Dalbiac)

• Leggiadre donne, infra molte bianche colombe aggiugne più di bellezza uno nero corvo, che non farebbe un candido cigno.
  • Charming ladies, the beauty of a flock of white doves is better enhanced by a black crow than by a pure white swan.
  • Ninth Day, Tenth Story (tr. G. H. McWilliam)

Quotes about Boccaccio

• There are few works which have had an equal influence on literature with the Decameron of Boccaccio. Even in England its effects were powerful. From it Chaucer adopted the notion of the frame in which he has enclosed his tales, and the general manner of his stories, while in some instances, as we have seen, he has merely versified the novels of the Italian. In 1566, William Paynter printed many of Boccaccio's stories in English, in his work called the Palace of Pleasure. The first translation contained sixty novels, and it was soon followed by another volume, comprehending thirty-four additional tales. These are the pages of which Shakespeare made so much use. From Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, we learn that one of the great amusements of our ancestors was reading Boccaccio aloud, an entertainment of which the effects were speedily visible in the literature of the country. The first English translation, however, of the whole Decameron, did not appear till 1620. In France, Boccaccio found early and illustrious imitators. In his own country he brought his native tongue to perfection, and gave stability to a mode of composition, which before his time had only existed in a rude state in Italy; be collected the current tales of the age, which he decorated with new circumstances, and delivered in a style which has no parallel for elegance, naivete, and grace. Hence his popularity was unbounded, and his imitators more numerous than those of any author recorded in the annals of literature.
  • John Colin Dunlop, The History of Fiction, 2nd ed. (1816), vol. 2, p. 352

Translations

• Normand R. Cartier, Boccaccio's Revenge: A Literary Transposition of the Corbaccio (The Old crow) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977)

• Nathaniel Griffin and Arthur Myrick, The Filostrato of Giovanni Boccaccio (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1929)

• Guido A. Guarino, Boccaccio, Concerning Famous Women (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963)

• Thomas B. Harbottle and Philip H. Dalbiac, Dictionary of Quotations (French and Italian), 2nd ed. (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., 1904)

The Decameron

• James Macmullen Rigg, The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio, 2 vols. (London: A. H. Bullen, 1903)

• George Henry McWilliam, Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron (London: Penguin Classics, 1972; 1995)

See also

• Marguerite de Navarre
• The Canterbury Tales
• One Thousand and One Nights

External links

• Full text of The Decameron in Italian and English.
• Works by Giovanni Boccaccio at Project Gutenberg