La Fiammetta

A scholarly and poetic translation of one of the great masterpieces of literature. While still at work in Florence on what was to become his most famous work, Decameron, Boccaccio paused in that great work, with heart full of passionate longing for the lady of his love, far away in Naples, to pour out his very soul in La Fiammetta, the name by which he always called the Lady Maria. Of the actual character of this lady, so famous in literature, and here true relations with Boccaccio, little that is certain is known. In several of his poems in the Decameron he alludes to her as being cold as a marble statue, which no fire can ever warm; and there is no proof, notwithstanding the ardor of Fiammetta as portrayed by her lover (Boccaccio)--who no doubt wished her to become the reality of his glowing portrayal of her--that he ever really received from the charmer whose name was always on his lips anything more than the friendship that was apparent to all the world. But she certainly inspired him in the writing of his best works.The best critics agree in pronouncing La Fiammetta a marvelous performance. John Addinton Symonds said, "It is the first attempt in any literature to portray subjective emotion exterior to the writer; since the days of Virgil and Ovid, nothing had been essayed in this region of mental analysis. The author of this extraordinary work proved himself a profound anatomist of feeling by the subtlety with which he dissected a woman's heart." The story is full of exquisite passages, and it exercised a widespread and lasting influence over all the narrative literature that followed it. It is so rich in material that it furnished the motives of many tales, and the novelists of the sixteenth century availed themselves freely of its suggestions. Giovanni Boccaccio is best known for the Decameron begun in 1530. The Decameron is a series of 100 Italian novellas in two volumes. These medieval stories are best known for their lively romances. There are stories with practical jokes, stories of wit, and stories of worldly clergy and their lack of morals. Many writers have used The Decameron as a source for their works. While writing the Decameron, Boccaccio was in love with the Lady Maria. She was in Naples and he missed her greatly. La Fiammetta was the affectionate nickname he gave Maria. There is no evidence that Boccaccio was ever more than a friend for Maria, but his passion for her was written about in several of his works. Fiction,Classics