Dărnicie și magnificență. Messer Torello și Saladin, o lectură (inter)culturală din Boccaccio
Generosity and magnificence. Messer Torello and Saladin, an (inter)cultural reading of Boccaccio

Summary/Abstract: Starting from novella 10.9 of the Decameron, one from a series devoted to stories about liberality and magnificence, the article confronts it to the context of ‘global Trecento’ relations with the religious alterity in Italy. In the wake of some extraordinary events, an improbable friendship comes to connect the hearts of a Christian named Torello and of the Muslim sultan Saladin. Is Boccaccio unusually benevolent regarding the religious liberties of his time, or the story truly reflects the spirit of a more tolerant age? The paper explores the historicized context of this novella in the late Middle Ages in the Mediterranean world, particularly against the history of the crusades, and eventually includes a few visual echoes of this story in the art of the wedding gifts. I also try to understand to what extent the medieval value of courtesy was a common idiom in rival religions, so that the chivalrous virtues could become a lingua franca in the relations between men of different religion and social ranks.

• Details
• Contents