Storia d'una Crudele Matrigna (M)
The Version I text Storia d'una Crudele Matrigna has often been given the siglum M (for 'Matrigna') in scholarship. There was some controversy about its original reception: it was first published by Giovanni Della Lucia in Venice, 1832, under the title Novella antica scritta nel buon secolo della lingua; it was then reprinted by Gaetano Romagnoli in 1862. Apparently Della Lucia had taken 'some liberties' with the text, 'Tuscanizing' the prose of a Venetian manuscript, which prompted sustained debate about the authenticity of the text as a medieval narrative (see Wikeley (1983) and D'Agostino (2022)). This was laid to rest when the fifteenth-century manuscript was rediscovered and edited in 1883 by Franz Roediger.
Crudele Matrigna is one of the three texts that forms the 'ramo italico antico', the old branch of the Italian Seven Sages texts, alongside the Latin Versio Italica historiae septem sapientum (L), and Italian Il Libro dei Sette Savi de Roma (C). Like both of these redactions, Crudele Matrigna has fourteen, rather than the expected fifteen, stories. The storytelling contest begins with the sages' first story, Canis, rather than a story told by the empress; her story Senescalcus is omitted entirely, and she tells six rather than seven stories. Some scholarship (Rajna) suggests this omission may have been made out of prudishness (as Senescalcus is the most explicit of the tales usually found in the Version A pattern); whatever the reason, the change necessitated a reordering of the narrative components of the text (see story order, below).
D'Agostino (2022) explores the complex relationship between the three 'ramo antico' redactions at length. Through close analysis of the textual variations across all manuscript witness of the three redactions, D'Agostino suggests that the Latin Versio Italica (or some specific manuscript witnesses of that version) may have been the source for the Storia d'una Crudele Matrigna, as many scholars have suggested (Paris (1876), Rajna (1880), etc.). However, D'Agostino does not concur with Gaston Paris' insistance that the Latin text was the source for Il Libro dei Sette Savi de Roma (C) as well, instead suggesting that C and L both derived from a shared (lost) source, with intervening textual variation, cross-contamination, and mediation (p. 271-75).
Tradition & Lineage
Recorded Secondary Versions
Connected Manuscripts
Language & Composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Notes & Commentary
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
| Has Short Title | Has Sequence Number | Has Narrator | Has Name Variation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canis – The Faithful Dog | 1 | ||
| Arbor – The Tree | 2 | Empress | |
| Medicus – The Doctor | 3 | ||
| Aper – The Boar and the Fruit | 4 | Empress | |
| Tentamina – The Test | 5 | ||
| Sapientes – The Wise Men | 6 | Empress | |
| Avis – The Bird | 7 | ||
| Gaza – The Treasure | 8 | Empress | |
| Inclusa – The Imprisoned Wife | 9 | ||
| Roma – Rome Besieged | 10 | Empress | |
| Vidua – The Widow | 11 | ||
| Virgilius – Virgil's Marvels | 12 | Empress | |
| Puteus – The Well | 13 |