L'Amabile di Continentia

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The Italian L'Amabile di Continentia is one of the later I (Versio Italico) redactions, and is closely related to the Erasto narrative. It is critically assumed to be Erasto's source, in fact (see Cesari (1896), Wikeley (1983), etc.). This is due to the fact that unlike most of Version I redactions, in L'Amabile the prince is not named Stefano, but rather Erasto. As in Erasto, the stepmother is named Afrodisia, while the sages are given names designed to sound Greek: Euprosigorus, Dimurgus, Thermus, Enoscopus, Philantropus, Agathus, Leucus (Campbell (1907) and Cesari (1896)). L'Amabile drops several of the expected Version I embedded stories (Vidua, Puteus, Avis), usually told by the sages. In their place, the narrative adds several new tales: Corpus Delicti (a faithful dog reveals his master's murder), Zelus (a husband believes slander about his innocent wife and murders her), and Caepulla (a father learns his son's fatal illness could have cured by a specific food). Additionally, unlike the 'rama italico antico' texts, L'Amabile gives the stepmother a seventh story, a new story titled Puer Adoptatus, bringing the narrative total back to fifteen. Of these four new texts, none are found elsewhere in the Seven Sages tradition, with the exception of Caepulla, which also appears in the Forty Viziers: Ḥikāyet-i Ḳırḳ Vezīr. Another distinguishing element is the fact that, rather than facing public execution, the empress kills herself in prison in at the end of the narrative.

L'Amabile di Continentia was likely composed in Northern Italy, judging by the prose which is a mix of Veneto and Lombardo, sometime in the fifteenth century according to Cesari (1896).

Identification and general Information
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Recorded secondary versions
I (Versio Italico) Erasto Il Libro dei Sette Savi de Roma (C) L'Amabile di Continentia Storia d'una Crudele Matrigna (M) Storia di Stefano (R) Versio Italica historiae septem sapientum (L)

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Modern Scholarship and Editions
Modern research literature	Cappelli (1865)
Modern Editions

Notes and Commentary
Note	Regarded by Wikeley (1983) to be the 'prototype' of Erasto.
Notes on motifs
Notes on the frame	Sages' names are taken from Campbell, and Cesari.

Pattern of embedded stories in this version

Has Short Title Has Sequence Number Has Narrator Has Name Variation Canis 1 Euprosigorus Euprosigoro Arbor 2 Empress Afrodisia Medicus 3 Dimurgus Dimurgo Aper 4 Empress   Tentamina – The Test 5 Thermus Termo Sapientes – The Wise Men 6 Empress   Zelus – Zeal 7 Enoscopus Oinoscopio Gaza 8 Empress   Inclusa 9 Philantropus Filantropo Roma 10 Empress   Corpus Delicti 11 Agathus Agato Virgilius 12 Empress   Caepulla 13 Leucus Leuco Puer Adoptatus 14 Empress   Copy Embedded Stories Copy Embedded Stories × Select Target Page: Close Process

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