From prose to stage: Machiavelli's Mandragola

The article discusses Machiavelli's Mandragola as an adaptation of Boccaccio's story of Ricciardo and Catella with the purpose of demonstrating that imitations are not, as we often think, mere reworkings of existing material. A discussion of the formal changes necessary for the transition from prose narrative to stage, such as the unity of time and place, reveal significant thematic innovations that mark the play's originality and independence from its source. Further analysis of the alteration and addition of characters leads to the conclusion that Mandragola stages a world hardly reminiscent of the Boccaccian tale that inspired it.