Visual Translation by Anne D. Hedeman;

Author:Anne D. Hedeman; [Hedeman;, Anne D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780268202279
Publisher: LightningSource
Published: 2022-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 4.43. Day 5, nouvelle 7. Giovanni Boccaccio, Des cent nouvelles, translated by Laurent de Premierfait. BAV Pal. lat. 1989, fol. 168v. Photo © 2019 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

FIGURE 4.44. A noblewoman from Gascony returning from pilgrimage is robbed in Cyprus; she seeks redress from the king. Giovanni Boccaccio, Des cent nouvelles, translated by Laurent de Premierfait. BAV Pal. lat. 1989, fol. 29v. Photo © 2019 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

The first image (fig. 4.44), an illustration of day 1 nouvelle 9, accompanies one of the most altered texts in Des cent nouvelles. In the French translation, it has a radically expanded summary and nouvelle.93 Boccaccio’s summary had been very short: “The King of Cyprus is transformed from a weakling into a man of courage after receiving a sharp rebuke.”94 As Beck shows, Laurent amplified this for his readers with a blend of geographical, geological, and historical information about Cyprus, but also with more of a preview of the story that the nouvelle would subsequently present. Several of the details provided in the amplification of Boccaccio’s summary, as, for instance, the description of Cyprus as an island, are reinforced in the image. Both the summary and the fuller nouvelle that follows the miniature describe how a noble Gascon woman, returning from pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher, was attacked by bad Cypriots and grievously wounded. After talking to a native who assured her that she would not receive help from the timid, lazy, and negligent king of Cyprus, she went before the king to seek redress and managed to move him to action with a courteous jibe.

It is clear that the moments outlined in the summary and described more fully in the nouvelle are what is portrayed in the left and right images of figure 4.44. However, careful study of the dress, gesture, and glance of the female pilgrim offers more information, conveying the emotional impact of what happened to her in ways that even the amplified text does not. The representation of the woman in the left half of the illumination emphasizes her modesty when she was traveling with her female companion and was attacked in the forest; she wears a high-necked robe, carries a pilgrim’s satchel, and has downcast eyes as two brigands close in on her. Because of the ambiguity introduced by the brown-colored robes and the inclusion of a tall tree in the foreground that overlaps the pilgrim, her arms, at first glance, appear crossed on her chest. Careful inspection of the illumination in the area of the dagger and the lower portion of the billowing sleeve of the brigand to the right reveals that this is not the case. The pilgrim raises her right hand ineffectually, protesting or attempting to fend off either the brigand who touches her chest or the second brigand at the left who closes in behind her. It requires careful looking to tease out this detail, which was made deliberately ambiguous; the artists of this manuscript normally rendered foreground trees smaller than the figures behind them for clarity, but here the tree seems deliberately used to mask the action.

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