Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta

by Giovanni Boccaccio

Elogia di Madonna Fiammetta

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Italy, Italian Literature, Renaissance, Philosophy, Literature

205 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1343

About the author

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of which it has been said that it surpasses in verisimilitude that of just about all of his contemporaries, since they were medieval writers and often followed formulaic models for character and plot.

Reviews

[Kalliope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, however, often is not.

But a literary gem, a gem remains.

For this short novel seems to be the first psychological novel in a modern Western language that we have, and some like to think that the refined introspection and self-analysis that it expounds foreruns modernist writings. No matter what has been written afterwards, nor what will be written in the future, the pioneering quality stays with this Elegy.

The story is simple and I am not spoiling it by saying that the book consists of the musings of a (married) woman who has been abandoned by her lover.

Its preciosity and rare value is then purely literary.

Its cut has a rich structure of narrators. Boccaccio the man, and author, speaks through the voice of a fictitious woman, Fiammetta, who extols the feminine. Or rather, I should say that Bocaccio writes through someone else’s writing, for Fiammetta posits herself as the author and addresses her pen from the very beginning. In her prologue we read: I shall go on with a tearful pen, and her last chapter begins with O dear little book of mine ... just as you have been written by my own hand...

The shimmering facets of the narrator, however, take on additional planes when we suspect that it could well be Boccaccio who speaks through Fiammetta’s nurse, when this older woman offers the longing lady some pieces of advice grounded in good solid sense. The male author then would still have another entry even if it is in the guise of another female character.

The role of the narrator also offers some glowing transparency. Who is it that writes the short summaries heading each one of the nine chapters – In which is demonstrated how many and what kinds of thoughts this lady engaged with while waiting for the time when her lover had promised to return. This undoing of Fiammetta’s claimed authorship by referring to her from outside the frame and in the third person breaks the opacity of the fictional illusion. An editor, or Boccaccio again?

And so we wonder, to whom is this addressed? Fiammetta says so clearly: to women. And if she does so it is not just because her unhappy romantic experience could be seen as a moralistic warning for other gullible females, but also because the act of loving and the act of reading are equated in her mind. She, --or is it Boccaccio?-- is putting love and femininity at the core of literature, at the core of art.

The ambiguous mix of Christian values with classical and pagan figures is what endows this jewel with a rich colour. It has all the tints from the Renaissance. We see Fiametta addressing, questioning, confronting, entities such as Fortune, Sleep, Love, Hope. She has also populated her world with numerous figures such as Deidameia, Jocasta, Alcmene, Cassandra, Evadne, Iole, etc... Figures which also populate the Glossary with which the editors of this edition have so kindly offered to us, the modern audience ignorant of mythology.

The elaborate rhetoric through which we follow Fiammetta’s tortuous pining and amorous agonies invites us to wonder about its roots in Western literature of the feelings of love and its expression. It is in Fiammetta’s claim that the articulation of the sentiment of love through writing, and the necessary femininity of readership, that we find the purity of the Elegy. This work then fits in the traditions of courtly love and Troubadours with their poetic roots in Provence and Sicily. After all, Boccaccio grew in the sophisticated Neapolitan court. But the degree of introspection and focus on the soul rather than on actions or stories is what is considered Boccaccio’s own innovation. He was after all a writer extraordinarily experimental. And he sought to explore this quality in the quarry from which a major family of Western literary output was obtained – Love and its accidental and passionate life.



Boccaccio’s brilliant will shine forever.


------------

Boccaccio (1313-1375) wrote this in 1343-45, soon after settling in Florence after having left Naples. Some critics see this work as a tour-de-force, and as an attempt to establish his name in this town. It precedes the Decameron, work in which he continued the predominance of the female as an audience and as narrator. A Fiammetta appears in more than one of his works. She may have been inspired in an unrequited love from his youth.

She has inspired other artists, such as the other Dante - Gabriel Rossetti.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that friend that broke up with the guy you didn’t like very much. The one you knew was not serious and a bit of a user but couldn’t tell her because you knew she wouldn’t listen. The one she’d only been dating for a while before he broke it off with her. And how you spent a long time being sympathetic and supportive through her heartbreak, even though secretly you thought it was the best thing that could have happened. And 16 months on you are now more than a little bored at hearing her drone on about how much she loves him, how much she misses him and generally self-pitying. That is this book.

(If you have never had a friend like that – bad news. You ARE that friend).

Fiammetta claims she is telling her story as a warning to women everywhere, and that she writes it from a place where she can look back at events and laugh. Hmmm I but this as much as I bought the dumped teenage boyfriend who claimed he, “wasn’t bothered, didn’t even like her.”

Fiammetta is an incredibly beautiful, young married woman when her head is turned by the handsome Panfilo at a dance. He is an accomplished flirt and reels her in and soon she is sneaking him into her bed at every available opportunity – her trusted nurse being a non judgmental accomplice. There is a section early on where the lovers are in bed lamenting how quickly the morning, which means his departure, has come which Shakespeare seems to have taken wholesale for Romeo and Juliet. Their illicit affair is brought to an end by his claim that he needs to return to his homeland to care for his sick and aging father who has no wife or other children to do so. The veracity of this claim is dubious as later we find that his father has found himself a nubile much younger wife! So either Panfilo did an excellent job restoring his father to health or he was making his excuses.

Despite his promise to return in four months he is still absent nearly double that. During that time Fiammetta finds out that despite his declarations of love for her he has been putting it about with numerous women of the town, including a comely nun and there are rumours that he has found a new love in his homeland that he is intending to marry. Reading her ability to justify his behaviour and convince herself that he was genuine with her alone is exactly like watching that one woman on every series of Married at First Sight who’s confronted with irrefutable evidence of her husband’s cheating and explains it all away while everyone else rolls their eyes so far in their head they get an intimate view of their cerebellum.

We observe the stages of heartbreak. First the anger and need for violent revenge on his new woman (I was fully behind her here) which is comical in its vehemence,

“So, as long as I live I will always haunt you as I would an enemy and invader of my territory; I will always live on this earth nourishing myself with the hope of your death, which I pray will not be just like any other: rather you should be catapulted, in place of heavy lead or stone, into the midst of the enemy; may your lacerated body, instead of being burned or buried, be split and torn apart to appease rapacious hounds, which, I pray, after having consumed the soft flesh may fight fiercely over your bones so that by gnawing on them ravenously they may demonstrate how you took pleasure in robbery when you were alive.
There will be no day, night nor hour in which my tongue will not curse you, and my cursing will have no end… I will fight you as long as the Ganges remains warm and the Danube cold… Nor will this anger end with death: by following you among the dead, I will do my best to torment you with all the harmful means used there. And if you should survive me, whatever the manner of my death and wherever my unhappy spirit will go, I will use all my strength to free it from there…I will appear to you in all my horror when you are awake, and in the quiet of the night I will awaken you with terrifying screams; in brief, whatever you are doing, I will continually spring into view before your eyes…and nowhere will I leave you in peace, and because of me you will be haunted by this fury as long as you live, and when you are dead I will be the cause of even worse things.”

Phew. And that isn’t the end of it. She goes on to say how in the present she’d rip her clothes and gouge her face. You’ve got to admire her commitment to the cause.

Followed by the grief and catastrophising (no other woman has suffered as much as she and she lists many women brought low by grief of love) . Dido’s grief is less than her own because, “As I reflect on her death, I finally consider her to be more impatient than woeful.”
Finally the recognition of foolishness.

It has been said that this is a very modern looking piece one reason being that he avoids describing these lovers beyond saying they are both incredibly beautiful and graceful thereby allowing the reader to construct them according to their own version of loveliness. It is also said that he is the first to give a woman a voice, that it is the first time a woman’s interior thoughts were written about. True or not I would say for sure that Boccaccio was the first to draw up the crazy / hot matrix.

[Illiterate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boccaccio narrates Fiammetta narrating her earlier self. The layers add irony. He takes a comic/mocking, not tragic/serious, view of life/love. Cf. nurse’s stoicism on pp. 115-9.

[Valentine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sobre todo, me hizo reír, porque Fiammetta es el ser más "drama queen" del mundo. Estoy segura de que Boccaccio lo hizo a propósito, como todo lo que él hace.
Pero, pero, por favor, nadie lo lea como una novela feminista porque obviamente no lo es. Es una de las primeras obras literarias cuyo personaje principal y narrador es una mujer, pero nada más.

[Taru Luojola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unettava vuodatus siitä, kuinka oman aikansa dudebro viettelee, raiskaa ja lähtee sitten seuraavaa naista viettelemään. Tiiviimpikin ilmaisu olisi riittänyt pointin välittämiseen.

[Louise Chambers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it may be the first "feminist" novel, but let us hope that this is not the last. It certainly is not radical; this coming from one who has read Cixous and American feminist authors. Willa Cather is more feminist than this. Oh well, at least he tried. It was a very long time ago when the men ruled the world.

[Chiara Santoianni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Questo è un libro sulla dipendenza affettiva. Sì, è un'opera di letteratura, che Boccaccio - uno dei 'padri' della lingua italiana - scrisse intorno al 1343 e che viene studiata per la sua somiglianza con la Vita nova dantesca, per i riferimenti ai classici, per lo stile e il genere: il monologo femminile. Ma se la leggiamo come un romanzo, facendoci prendere dalla trama che in fondo è appassionante, ci rendiamo conto che tratta argomenti modernissimi, e non a caso è definita dai critici un romanzo psicologico. Fiammetta, come spesso accade, nella sua Napoli adocchia in chiesa il giovane Panfilo; il gioco di sguardi porta in breve a un'intesa complice, destinata a restare segreta anche e soprattutto quando si trasferisce in camera da letto. Fiammetta, infatti, è una donna sposata; non solo, ma con un uomo meraviglioso, che la rispetta, non la controlla più di tanto e si fa mettere le corna serenamente, senza accorgersene mai. Panfilo è bello, sì, e ama tutta la notte, ma, quanto a impegni e serietà, non ne vuol proprio sapere. E così, nel momento in cui Fiammetta è più innamorata di lui, con la scusa di dover visitare l'anziano padre a Firenze decide di mollarla, promettendole che tornerà. Aspetta e spera, la povera Fiammetta; e intanto si consuma nel dolore e nella passione, mentre la sua bellezza sfiorisce e da lontano giunge la peggiore delle notizie: Panfilo ha un'altra, e se l'è sposata. A chi le domanda la causa della sua tristezza, propina scuse (e usa persino la morte di suo fratello, di cui nella storia non si narra, per distogliere l'attenzione dal motivo delle sue lacrime). Il santo marito, ignaro di tutto, inizia a preoccuparsi: le è vicino, la porta a caccia per distrarsi; ma il colore sulle guance di Fiammetta ritorna solo quando la fida nutrice le annuncia il ritorno di Panfilo. Peccato che si sbagli!
Leggere questo testo letterario è un po' difficile, per il linguaggio aulico, le continue digressioni e citazioni dal mondo classico, i flussi di coscienza di Fiammetta che si ossessiona (e ci ossessiona) facendosi mille "seghe mentali". Però bisognerebbe farlo. Dopo, chiunque abbia sofferto di una dipendenza affettiva, abbia atteso invano un amante, abbia creduto a un amore che non si è mai retto in piedi, rinsavirà immediatamente, chiedendosi: ero anch'io così?

[Pierre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Privo del fastidioso impianto allegorico che sorregge il Ninfale di Ameto, l'Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta sarebbe potuta essere una narrazione realistica, che indaga uno dei temi preferiti da Boccaccio: l'amore come forza cui l'essere umano non può sottrarsi. Tuttavia, l'autore ha preferito dare un impianto molto letterario alla sua elegia.

I sentimenti di Fiammetta, protagonista e narratrice, sono infatti mediati dalla letterarietà: i suoi discorsi d'amore sono mutuati dalle fonti latine (le Heroides di Ovidio, la Fedra di Seneca), anzi talora Boccaccio traduce interi brani direttamente dal latino. Alcune tappe della storia di Fiammetta sono invece ispirate alla Vita Nuova dantesca (l'innamoramento ha inizio con un sogno, per esempio).

La trama è snella: Fiammetta, napoletana, si innamora del giovane fiorentino Panfilo, che però deve tornare a Firenze per volere paterno. Egli tarda a rientrare a Napoli e Fiammetta riceve notizie contrastanti (si è sposato, ha una nuova amante, sta per tornare...) che la tormentano.
Questo semplice plot viene gonfiato fino a coprire decine di pagine di pianti e lamentele, in cui la sventurata Fiammetta si lagna della sua situazione paragonandosi alle eroine dell'antichità.
Interessante la dedica alle donne innamorate, che in parte riprende alcuni topoi della lirica amorosa, in parte anticipa la dedica del Decameron.

Sicuramente utile per conoscere Boccaccio oltre il Decameron, non mi sento comunque di consigliare la lettura

[Heidi]

Ei hemmetti. Jos haluan kirjan sisältämää särkyneen sydämen diipeissä virroissa kulkevaa tarinaa, niin kuuntelen odotusmusiikkia puhelimessa tai aamuradiota kuppaisella ruotsinlaivalla (tai luen jotain muuta). Antiikin tarinat luen mieluummin alkuperäisenä kuin renessanssin suodattamana. F rakastuu, kokee väkivaltaa ekana yönä ”rakastettunsa” toimesta ja rakastaa. Mies jättää, F rakastaa. Kukaan ei ole ikinä kokenut näin onnetonta rakkautta -asenne, ei edes luettelemansa antiikin naiset (joukossa mm. Europe !, Medeia ja Dido). Fn surun ydin on rakkaus mieheen, jonka toinen nainen vei. F haluaa kostaa naiselle. Ja F vain rakastaa miestä. Kirja ei käsittele erityisesti Fn kokemaa väkivaltaa vaan keskittyy tuskaan ja ahdistukseen "elämänsä rakkauden" menettämisestä. / Romaanin pohjalla oletetusti Bn onneton rakkaus (nainen jätti). / Kirja on ajankuvallinen kuvaus täyttymättömästä romanttisesta ja intohimoisesta rakkaudesta. Ajankuvallisuus paljasti myös sen, että "viekkaan rohkeasti" yöllä vierelle tulevat miehet, jotka "häpäisevät nukkuvan naisen kainouden" ei tarvitse diipimpää käsittelyä. Jotkin kirjat eivät kestä aikaa.

[Amanda Hubbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Beautiful narrative intertwining antiquity, the middle ages and today. This work proves to be a strong step up towards openly feminist literature and frames women, especially an irrational young woman desperately in love, in a refreshing, tangible and shockingly human light; especially for a 14th century novel. Highly recommend to anyone interested in the evolution of female representation in literature, the perception of a medieval(/early Renaissance) woman within her time, or just foundational Italian literature.

[laetitia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sicuramente non la migliore prosa di Boccaccio, ma ho trovato l’opera comunque avvincente (nonostante sia veramente just vibes and no plot). Fiammetta è un personaggio davvero insopportabile (forse non solo per il lettore moderno, ha un’arroganza fuori dal comune che anche le note mettono in evidenza). in generale mi sono divertita a leggere il libro, aspetto con molta anticipazione di affrontare il Decameron

[Aura · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Ycyllia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[erich · Rating 5 out of 5]

удивительно что это на самом деле неиронично хорошо

[Mona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Olgu, nõustun, et teose kirjutamise ajal võis see kindlasti fenomenaalne olla, et peategelane on naine ning mõtestatakse lahti naise tundeelu. Aga praegu tundub see üsna 188 lk nuttu ja hala mingi armukese pärast, kes naise maha jättis, lisaks siis veel väga palju viiteid Vana-Kreeka mütoloogiatele, millest lõpus lihtsalt läksin diagonaalis üle, sest tõesti need kõik ei jää meelde, kui ühel lehel on ligi 5 joonealust märkust.
Kui ehk oled armastuse lahkumise pärast 2 aastat voodis nutnud ja halanud ning haudunud erinevaid plaane, et kuidas saata teda hukatusse ja siis ikka täiega armastada või siis ikka ennast ära tappa või siis saata tema uus armastus põrgutulle, siis ehk oskad samastuda peategelasega. Ma ei osanud. Olgu, alati ei peagi, aga siis oleks võinud selle hala palju lühemas vormis kirja panna, sest sisuliselt selles teoses väga midagi ei juhtu peale nutmise.

[Lauri Dabbieri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Boccaccio and this is a very easy translation to read!

[Ro Capriles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spanish translation was very difficult to read (it was a "baroque" translation). As the first "psychological" novel, it's very interesting.

[Catherine Corman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made a mock of the folly of dreams and of those who believe in them, and so I rendered the work of the gods useless

-Boccaccio, La Fiammetta

[Lulu]

1343/4

[Alessia Guarrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Struggente

[Fatihah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a HUGE fan of Boccaccio however with this one, it was rather a dread.