MASUCCIO SALERNITANO, TOMMASO. – A nobleman of the Guardati family, born in Salerno, where he died in the 15th century; however, he lived for a long time in Naples as secretary to Prince Roberto Sanseverino and as a familiar of King Ferdinand, and enjoyed the friendship of illustrious lords and famous humanists, not only in Naples.
In 1475 he completed the Novellino, which was then published in Naples in 1476 under the care of Francesco del Tuppo, with the printer Sisto Reisinger. The book contains 50 novellas divided into 5 parts, a “prologo” and a “parlamento de lo autore” at the end; the novellas themselves are also divided into five sections: “argomento,” “dedica,” “esordio,” “narrazione,” “Mascuccio,” that is, commentary in the author’s own voice. Declared masters are Juvenal and Boccaccio, and following their example he engages in bitter polemics against women (though not all) and against religious figures (though not all, and never against religion itself). The themes are those of lust, except for some “magnificences” in the final part; the taste for framing devices and the character of the style make of M. a transplanted Boccaccio in Naples and at court, rather heavy in the comic and effective in the tragic, better suited to the author who aims for the solemn and lapses into the baroque.