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 Versio Italica historiae septem sapientum (L), and
Recorded Secondary Versions
Connected Manuscripts
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 |