Storia d'una Crudele Matrigna (M)

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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

Branch of the tradition
Seven Sages of Rome
Adapted from (version)
Versio Italica historiae septem sapientum (L)
Source for composition and adaptation information
D'Agostino (2022)

Recorded Secondary Versions

Connected Manuscripts

 Has LanguageHas LocationHas Date Range Of Production

Language & Composition

Language of version
Italian


Place of composition
Venice, Italy
Date of Composition
1350 - 1450


Modern Scholarship & Editions

Modern research literature
Roediger (1883), Della Lucia (1832), D'Agostino (2022), Wikeley (1983), Runte, Wikeley, Farrell (1984), Rajna (1880), Paris (1876), D'Ancona (1864), Cesari (1896), Segre (1959), Mussafia (1867), Bianchi (2014-2015), Lusiani (2019), Cappelli (1865)
Modern Editions
Roediger, Libro de' sette savi (1883), Della Lucia, Novella antica (1832), Lusiani, Il Libro dei sette savî di Roma (2019)

Notes & Commentary

Note
Also known as Novella antica, Scritta nel buon secolo della lingua and Libro de' sette savi di Roma.

Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
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This page was last edited on 5 March 2026, at 08:37.
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