Boccaccio’s Decameron

Towards a New Critical Edition of Boccaccio‘s Decameron

Editorial situation of the Decameron

• Critical edition by Vittore Branca (1976): modernized, ahistorical text, ignorant towards original macro structure
• Diplomatic transcript by Charles S. Singleton (1974): manuscript oriented, not work oriented (fragmentary, not critical, partly interpretative)
• Facsimile of Cod. Hamilton 90 (1975): black and white print edition

Goals of a new edition

• Critical hybrid edition (digital / print) of the whole work, based on detailed examination and documentation of relevant manuscripts
• New canonical reference system according to the macro structure of the autograph
• Historical punctuation system, capitalization, orthography, hyphenation etc.
• Multiple modes of text presentation (facsimile, historical, critical, collated, variant, and reading text – linked to each other)

Relevant manuscripts and print editions

• Critical text of Branca as point of departure and reference
• Hamilton autograph as authoritative source text
• Completion of the fragmentary Hamilton text according to close manuscript (temporal, formal): Paris (BNF ms. it. 482), Florence (Laurenziana Plut. XLII,1 “Manelli“), Oxford (Holkham misc. 49), “Deo Gratias“ (print edition of ~1470)