NOVELLINO. - A collection of 99 novellas and a proem, as preserved in cod. Vat. lat. 3214 (by Bembo, 1513), in the Gualteruzzi print (Bologna

1925) and in the first part of cod. Panciat. 32. It was called Libro di novelle e di bel parlar gentile (according to cod. Panciat. 138, now 32) or Cento novelle antiche (to distinguish them from those of the Decameron) and N. in the sixteenth century (e.g., Della Casa, letter of 27 July 1525).

The author is certainly a Florentine, toward the end of the thirteenth century, of Ghibelline and Christian sentiments, notwithstanding certain licences proper to storytellers. He gathered «algunanti fiori di parlare, di belle cortesie e di belli risposi e di belle valentie, di belli donari e di belli amori, del tempo passato, ad es., a prode ed a piacere di coloro che non sanno e desiderano di sapere»; and he translated them from oral and written sources, classical and medieval, biblical and mythological, presenting them with lively sympathy for traits of intelligence, with a precise sense of reality, in a simple but effective form, and with a spontaneous artistic taste, if not indeed with a conscious intent.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: for the information, for the text, and copious notes, v.: Novellino, introd. e note di L. Di Francia, Torino 1930; G. Vutano, L'elemento storico del N., Palermo 1934.

Alberto Chiari

NOVENA: v. TRIDUO.

@incollection{ec8_novellino, author = {Chiari, Alberto}, title = {Novellino}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1980--1981}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/novellino} }

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NOVENA: v. TRIDUO.

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