Emulare Boccaccio senza la cornice: il novelliere attribuito a Gentile Sermini

Abstract

In his notes to the Biblioteca dell’eloquenza italiana di Monsignore Giusto Fontanini (1753), the Venetian scholar Apostolo Zeno states that he has in his possession the codex of the Novelle written by an anonymous Sienese writer from the mid 15th century and that he believes it to be the work of Gentile Sermini, to this day an elusive figure. Actually, the two sources containing this work bear no name, and they provide numerous clues that would confirm the writer’s desire to remain anonymous. The Sienese writer’s collection was written during the shift from the communal society of the 14th century to the courtly Renaissance. It has profuse ties with the Decameron, the latter being seen as the model to transgress; in fact, direct and indirect references are often made to Boccaccio’s work but in a way that completely undermines it in terms of form and content. Lastly, there are several innovations in this collection of novellas that make it the precursor to a long line of works in prose of the 15th and 16th centuries.