MASUCCIO SALERNITANO, TOMMASO. - A nobleman of the Guardati family, born in Salerno, where he also died in the fifteenth century; but he lived for a long time in Naples as secretary to Prince Roberto Sanseverino and a member of King Ferdinando’s household, and enjoyed the friendship of illustrious lords and famous humanists, not only from Naples.
In 1475 he completed the Novellino, subsequently published in Naples in 1476 under the care of Francesco del Tuppo, printer Sisto Reisinger. The book contains 50 tales divided into 5 parts, a “prologue,” and a “parliament of the author” at the end; the tales too have a fivefold division: “subject,” “dedication,” “exordium,” “narration,” “Masuccio,” that is, a commentary in the person of the author. His declared masters were Giovenale and Boccaccio, and, following their example, he engaged in harsh polemic against women (though not all) and against religious persons (though not all, and never against religion). The themes are lustful, except for certain princely “magnificences” in the final part; and the taste for framing devices, like the character of the style, makes M. a Boccaccio transplanted to Naples and to the court, somewhat heavy in comedy and effective in tragedy, better suited to the author when he aims at solemnity and lapses into the baroque.