La matière troyenne en Italie et en italien le Roman de Troie, des traductions anonymes à Boccace

Abstract

The Italian medieval texts linked to the matter of Troy, in their variety and diversity, depend on the same French material that goes back to the Roman de Troie of Benoît de Sainte-Maure. However, the style and context of these works can be surprisingly different. This proves that the original material has gone through many filters, drawing tortuous and entangled paths. If Binduccio dello Scelto follows its source (Prose 2) extremely faithfully, the Istorietta troiana, which derives from another prose version of the Roman de Troie (Prose 3), treats its model with much more freedom. This text displays a brilliant and effective rhythm, as well as a lively language and an original narrative style, and tends to free itself from the French model. The young Boccaccio is particularly sensitive to the charm of the matter of Troy. In his Filostrato, he isolates for the first time the love story of Briseida, a personage invented by Benoît de Sainte-Maure. The starting point is the same, but this poem is an original reworking from the multiple suggestions offered by the author's vast readings. Boccaccio's personality allows him to develop this secondary episode, to deepen it on a psychological level and to enrich it with various cultural influences, from Ovide to the Dolce Stil Novo. The emphasis on elegiac and lyrical tones betrays the author's cultural background, testifying to his debt to the tradition of the Istorietta troiana and the Heroides of the ms. Gaddi 71.