Boccaccio’s Fiammetta and the Consolation of Literature

The belief in the power of literature to furnish consolation for hardship constitutes a central feature of Boccaccio’s literary corpus. The most famous example of this belief emerges in the Decameron, where the author-narrator declares that his aim in writing is to offer “consola-zion” to his female readers wounded by love.¹ Yet similar statements on the consolatory value of literature can be found in many other of Boccaccio’s works, from the early Filocolo through the Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine to the later Book 14 of the Genealogia deorum gentilium.²

When discussing Boccaccio’s view of literary consolation, scholars have tended to identify his position with the “diversion” and “recreation” offered by reading, the simple enjoyment of the pleasure of the text.³ Nonetheless, Boccaccio’s works exhibit a much more elaborate and multi-faceted engagement with the issue. Near the beginning of the Filocolo, for example, the narrator explains to the readers what type of “consolazione” they may gain from their reading, alluding to two types of solace which differ from pure aesthetic pleasure. As the narrator declares, by reading about the tribulations of the protagonists Florio and Biancifiore, readers will be able to realize that they are not alone in suffering, a realization which is in itself comforting in his view. Furthermore, the ultimate happy ending of the two lovers’ story will also provide readers, according to the narrator, with a consolatory hope, a “speranza” for a similar “guiderdone.”⁴

Boccaccio’s elaborate and often complex engagement with the consolation of literature is evident not only in his narrators’ explicit statements, but also in the intra-diegetic reflections on the consolatory value of literature that fill his narratives. One work in which this meta-literary exploration is particularly at the forefront is the Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, written probably in 1343–1344, following Boccaccio’s return to Florence from Naples.⁵ Over the course of the work, the narrator Fiammetta, who narrates her story of amorous misfortunes from its happy beginning to its current sorrowful state,⁶ describes at length her attempts to gain consolation from reading and storytelling—concentrating especially on the solace she attains from reading about the tragic fate of others. Furthermore, in two crucial points in the work (Chapter 1 and Chapter 6), Fiammetta portrays her nurse’s efforts to console her—attempts that closely rely on Stoic ethical positions. During these efforts, the nurse explains to Fiammetta how she should use tragic narratives as a source of consolation—an explanation which is markedly at odds, as we shall see, with Fiammetta’s own use of such stories. The reflection on the way in which tragic narratives can and should facilitate consolation thereby emerges as one of the central themes of the Fiammetta as a whole.

Boccaccio scholarship of the past several decades has focused primarily on the attitude to earthly love that emerges from the Fiammetta, often arguing that Boccaccio’s main aim in the work is to underscore the dangers of carnal love, the amore per diletto. Robert Hollander, for example, has notoriously called Fiammetta a “fool” for her unwavering dedication to her love and claimed that Boccaccio’s authorial position should be identified with that of the nurse, who repeatedly warns Fiammetta of the dangers of illicit carnal love.⁷ Janet Smarr has further developed this perspective, elaborating on the rhetorical strategies through which the author Boccaccio advances his moral message on the dangers of earthly love.⁸ Francesco Bruni has reiterated a similar notion, claiming that Fiammetta represents a heroine petrified in a “riprovevole” and illusory passion, in a manner which recalls the sinful souls in Dante’s Inferno.⁹

Yet no less than a reflection on the consequences of carnal love, the Elegia di madonna Fiammetta, this article will argue, offers an exploration of the relationship between reading and consolation, probing the way in which tragic narratives can and should serve as a source of solace.¹⁰ This exploration, as the first part of this article will show, is divided between two central perspectives, which...