Petrarch and ›Modern Writers‹: Two Little-Known Witnesses to the Legend of ›Fastrada’s Ring‹

Abstract

This paper studies two little-known Italian witnesses to the legend of ›Fastrada’s ring‹: chap. 33 in Book 2 of Francesco Pipino’s Chronicon (c. 1321 – 1328) and a passage from the life of Emperor Otto IV in Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Historia Imperiale (mid-1470s). The testimony of the Chronicon deserves particular attention, because it is earlier than Petrarch’s letter in the Familiares (Book 1, letter 4), which until now has been regarded as the first existing Latin account of the legend. The Chronicon is the work of a compiler: Pipino writes history by assembling and juxtaposing different sources, which he almost always indicates accurately. However, he does not mention the source of chap. 33 in Book 2. This paper examines the different sources of Book 2 of the Chronicon and attempts to explain the relationship between Pipino and Petrarch’s tales.