Erasto (Es)
The Erasto text derives from the fifteenth- or early-sixteeenth-century L'Amabile di Continentia (Em) manuscrupt tradition - hence their shared siglum E, differentiated by the 'm' for manuscript, and 's' for stampata (or print). As in L'Amabile, the stepmother in Erasto is named Afrodisia, while the sages are given names designed to sound Greek: Euprosigoro, Dimurgo, Terno, Enoscopo, Filando, Agato, and Leuco (Cesari,1896, and D'Ancona, 1864).The two texts follow the same narrative pattern, beginning with the usual story order found in all the Version I (Versio Italico) texts, then diverging from the seventh story. They lose several of the expected Version I embedded stories (Vidua, Puteus, Avis), usually told by the sages. In their place, these narratives add 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, in L'Amabile and Erasto, the stepmother has a seventh story again, a new narrative titled Puer Adoptatus; this brings 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.
Tradition & Lineage
Recorded Secondary Versions
Connected Manuscripts
| Has Language | Has Location | Has Date Range Of Production | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerusalem National Library of Israel Ms. Heb. 7012=8 | Hebrew | Jerusalem, National Library of Israel | 1801 - 1900 |
Language & Composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
Connected Prints