Italian Version A

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The Seven Sages narrative in Italian is often titled Il Libro dei Sette Savi di Roma. There are two different, mostly unrelated branches of the Italian Sette Savi narrative: one, discussed below, is an Italian adaptation of the pattern known as Version A; the other, the Versio Italico or Version I pattern, developed separately, and consists of a handful of different redactions based on a distinct story-order. While the Version I pattern is assumed to have evolved out of a Version A narrative, it is critically understood to be distinct from that family, and to constitute its own branch of the Seven Sages tradition.

The Italian branch of the Version A pattern, on the other hand, is understood to be closely related to other Version A texts. It is sometimes referred to in scholarship as the versione francese-italica (by e.g. Cesari), and it exists in a few different redactions. All of these follow, or nearly follow, the story-order set by the Old French Version A, and are presumed to be (direct or indirect) translations of French iterations of the narrative. The three disctinct redactions are:


All of these redactions have complex inheritances. Of the three versions, the Libro dei Sette Savj (A) is most closely related to its French Version A source-text, and the only one to maintain all fifteen stories. The Italian Prose (V) betrays the influence of Version L (Sept Sages de Rome), perhaps suggesting that a French A/L Overlap text was its source. The Storia favolosa di Stefano has historically been designated part of Version A, but also evidences influences of I (Versio Italico). Some scholarship (D'Agostino, 2022) therefore groups it with other anomalous Version I texts instead of with the A branch.

Both the Prose (V) and the Storia favolosa replace the story Puteus with Mercator, a story that clearly mirrors the frame-tale's structure and concerns. Mercator is found only in these two Italian redactions, and in the anomalous Latin (and later German) translations of Version A known as the Allegatio septem sapientum or Libellus muliebri nequitia plenus. The Latin Allegatio also replaces Puteus with Mercator, and was composed sometime in the 14th century, in Northern Italy - making it roughly contemporary with these Italian Version A redactions.

General Information


Parent Versions
A (Seven Sages)


Title
Il Libro dei Sette Savi
Branch of the tradition
Seven Sages of Rome

Language & Composition

Language of version
Italian
Translated into (languages)
Veneto, Toscano
Place of composition
Italy
Date of Composition
1250 - 1400

Literature & Editions

Modern research literature
Mussafia (1867), D'Ancona (1864), D'Agostino (2022), Giannetti (2012), Giannetti (1996), Bozzoli (1999), Bianchi (2014-2015), Varnhagen (1881), Cesari (1896), Segre (1959), Bozzoli (1997), Comparetti (1869), Cappelli (1865)
Modern Editions
D'Ancona, Il Libro dei Sette Savj (1864), Varnhagen, Eine Italienische Prosaversion der Sieben Weisen (1881), Bianchi, Libro dei sette savi di Roma (2014-2015), Giannetti, Libro dei Sette Savi di Roma (2012), Bozzoli, Storia favolosa di Stefano (1999)

Recorded Branch of This Secondary Version


Adaptations

Adapted from (version)
French Version A: Roman des Sept Sages
Adapted into (version)
Italian Prose (V), Libro dei Sette Savj (A), Storia favolosa di Stefano (S)



Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version

Connected Manuscripts








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This page was last edited on 13 March 2026, at 13:00.
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