Giovanni Boccaccio. Filostrato; Diana’s Hunt

Abstract

The review is devoted to a seminal event in Russian studies of Italian literature — the publication of a versified translation of Filostrato and Diana’s Hunt, Boccaccio’s first two works. Such a translation appears in the Russian language for the first time, thanks to the work of A. Triandafilidi and V. Oslon. Diana’s Huntis Boccaccio’s first completed poem in terza rima, a verse form previously used only by Dante. Filostrato holds a special place not only in Boccaccio’s legacy but also inworld literature. With its Graecised title and written in ottava rima, this narrative poem marks the departure from the classical literary canon in favour of folk urban culture and features the narrative devices and types of characters that would permeate subsequent Renaissance works. At the core of the poem is the story of Troilus and Cressida, one of literature’s archetypal couples of doomed lovers (along with Tristan and Isolde and Romeo and Juliet). The story later inspired Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida.