Resumen
Resumen de Il Novellino
Para quién es
For readers who love short stories, medieval courts and legends, clever replies and lessons in generosity. It also suits anyone curious about the beginnings of the Italian short story and the world that prepared the way for Boccaccio.
De qué trata este libro
Il Novellino is a small book of short tales written in Tuscan Italian in the late thirteenth century. Nobody knows who put it together. Scholars link it to Florence and to a learned circle that knew courtly poetry, Latin writers and French romances. It is usually said to hold about one hundred tales, though old manuscripts differ in number and order. Edward Storer made the English version of the book called The Hundred Old Tales.
The tales are very short. Some run only a few lines. They tell of emperors, sultans, knights, philosophers, merchants, jesters and ordinary people who say the right thing at the right moment. Many end on a neat reply, a clever trick or a lesson about generosity. You get a lively picture of how people of that age liked to talk and to judge each other. You also meet an early step in the Italian short story. First, let us look at where these tales came from and how the book is built.
En este resumen
- 1A book of tales with no authorFree
- 2Emperors and sultans set the standard
- 3Knights and ladies from the Arthurian world
- 4Quick wit wins the day
- 5Wise men and old stories
- 6Why the book is built so small
Idea clave 1 de 6
A book of tales with no author
Il Novellino has no named author. It seems to have been gathered in Tuscany around the end of the thirteenth century, a time when Italian cities were growing rich and proud. The compiler drew on many sources. These included stories from the ancient world, French tales of King Arthur, accounts of famous rulers, and anecdotes that were simply told in the streets and at court.
The oldest manuscripts do not agree. Some have a prologue, some do not, and the tales appear in different orders. The title Novellino means little novelty or little news. The Italian word novella later came to mean a short story, and this book is one of the earliest places where that kind of writing shows itself in the Italian language.
The opening of the book states its purpose in plain terms. It says the tales are meant to be remembered by people of good heart, so that they can learn from fine words and fine deeds. The compiler wants readers to pick up polished speech, courtesy and generous behavior, as a young person might take lessons from a good household.
So the book is a kind of flower garden of examples. You are not asked to follow one story from start to finish. You walk along and stop at one small scene after another. Each scene holds a person, a challenge and an answer, and then the book moves on.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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