Storia favolosa di Stefano (S)

1. Home
2. Version
3. Storia favolosa di Stefano (S)

The Storia favolosa di Stefano represents one of the Italian redactions of the Seven Sages that has usually been designated as part of the Version A tradition. (D'Agostino (2022) places the Storia alongside other anomalous Italian texts, including the Storia di Stefano and Erasto, as distinct from the other Version A redactions; however, historically scholarship has usually grouped it alongside the Libro dei Sette Savj (A) and the Italian Prose (V).)

Like Italian Prose (V), the Storia replaces the 6th story, Puteus, with the story Mercator - however, unlike the text edited by Varnhagen, the Storia then re-inserts Puteus later in the text in the position usually occupied by Inclusa. This latter change in the position of Puteus is identical to that found most of the I (Versio Italico) redactions, indicating the 'non solidali' nature of the version, according to D'Agostino (2022). Additionally, like many of the I (Versio Italico) texts, the Storia gives the prince's name as 'Stefano' - a distinguishing feature that prompts Runte et al to group this text with the 'Stefano'-group of Italian texts (including the closely related Storia di Stefano) rather than the Version A redactions.

The Storia exists in one manuscript, a fifteenth-century text in Veneto dialect.

Wikely notes that in this version, as well as in the Storia di Stefano, the empress is motivated not by love of the prince, but by desire to protect her own future children's inheritance, and that she does so through magic: the dire fate that will befall the prince if he should speak is not only foretold through the stars, but brought about by the stepmother's magic-working (p. 15).

Tradition & Lineage

Branch of the tradition

Seven Sages of Rome

Recorded Secondary Versions

• A (Seven Sages)
  • Dutch Version A
  • French Version A: Roman des Sept Sages
    • Group U
    • Group V
    • Group W
    • Group X
    • Group Y
    • Group Z
  • Gaelic Version A
  • German Version A: Allegatio/Libellus
  • Italian Version A
    • Italian Prose (V)
    • Libro dei Sette Savj (A)
    • Storia favolosa di Stefano (S)
  • Latin Version A
    • Latin Version A: Allegatio / Libellus
    • Latin Version A: De Septem Sapientibus
  • Middle English Version A
    • Midland Version
    • Printed English Version A
    • Y Group
      • Northern English
      • Southern English
  • Old Swedish Version A: Sju vise mästare
    • Old Swedish Redaction A
    • Old Swedish Redaction B
  • Older Scots Version A: Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
  • Welsh Version A: Chwedleu Seith Doethon Rufein
    • Early Modern and Modern Welsh Version A
    • Middle Welsh Version A

Connected Manuscripts

	Has Language	Has Location	Has Date Range Of Production

Language & Composition

Language of version

Italian

Place of composition

Novigrad, Croatia

Date of Composition

1401 - 1460

Source for date of composition

D'Agostino (2022), Cesari (1896)

Modern Scholarship & Editions

Modern research literature

Bozzoli (1997), Bozzoli (1999), D'Agostino (2022), Cesari (1896), D'Ancona (1864), Varnhagen (1881), Giannetti (1996), Bianchi (2014-2015), Runte, Wikeley, Farrell (1984), Wikeley (1983)

Modern Editions

Bozzoli, Storia favolosa di Stefano (1999)

Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version

Has Short Title	Has Sequence Number	Has Narrator	Has Name Variation
Arbor – The Tree	1	Empress
Canis – The Faithful Dog	2	Bancillas	Benzilas
Aper – The Boar and the Fruit	3	Empress
Medicus – The Doctor	4	Anxilles	Ansiles
Gaza – The Treasure	5	Empress
Mercator	6	Lentulus	Letelus
Senescalcus – The Seneschal	7	Empress
Tentamina – The Test	8	Malquidras	Malchidas
Virgilius – Virgil's Marvels	9	Empress
Avis – The Bird	10	Cato	Chato
Sapientes – The Wise Men	11	Empress
Vidua – The Widow	12	Jesse	Pesem
Roma – Rome Besieged	13	Empress
Puteus – The Well	14	Arcius	Araus

Copy Embedded Stories

Copy Embedded Stories

×

Select Target Page:

Close Process