Erasto, or I compassionevoli avvenimenti di Erasto, was first published in 1542, and went through more than 31 editions before the end of the century. Its enormous popularity led to translations into French, Spanish, English, and Hebrew.
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.
Unlike most of theVersio Italico narratives, and indeed most Seven Sages texts, the Erasto narrative dramatically priviledges the frame story, devoting approximately fifty per cent of the textual space to the frame (Wikeley, p. 14).
At the time of its first publication in 1542, the Italian Erasto included a 'tavola delle cose degne di memoria' - a 'table of things worthy of memory' (Wikeley (1983), p. 11). This index suggests that, from the outset, Erasto was designed to be used as a 'reference tool, a repository of commonplaces, proverbs, and other expressions of popular (especially antifeminist) wisdom' (ibid.).
Wikeley traces the success of the narrative through its multilingual early modern transmission, noting the early translation into French in 1564, then Pedro Hurtado de la Vera's 1573 Spanish edition. The English edition, produced by Francis Kirkman in 1674, was later followed by yet another translation into French - this time, however, from the Spanish version by Hurtado de la Vera, in 1709 (Wikeley, pp. 10-11). The Italian tradition was also dynamic - the prose Erasto was also reworked into a nine-canto poem in ottava rima by Mario Teluccini in 1566.
Recorded Secondary Versions
Language & Composition
Translated into (languages)
Source for date of composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Modern research literature
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
Connected Prints
| | Has Language | Has Location | Has Sort Date Of Print |
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| Erasto dopo molti secoli ritornato al fine in luce et con somma diligenza dal greco fedelmente tradotto in italiano. Mantua: Venturino Roffinello, 1546. | Italian | | 1546 JL |
| Erasto dopo molti secoli ritornato al fine in luce, et con somma diligenza dal Greco fedelmente tradotto in Italiano. Venezia: Agostino Bindoni, 1550. | Italian | | 1550 JL |
| Erasto dopo molti secoli ritornato al fine in luce, et con somma diligenza dal Greco fedelmente tradotto in Italiano. Venezia: Agostino Bindoni, 1551. | Italian | | 1551 JL |
| Erasto dopo molti secoli ritornato al fine in luce, et con somma diligenza dal Greco fedelmente tradotto in Italiano. Venezia: Giovanni Andrea Vavassore detto Guadagnino, 1551. | Italian | | 1551 JL |
| Erasto dopo molti secoli ritornato al fine in luce, et con somma diligenza dal Greco fedelmente tradotto in Italiano. Venezia: Giovanni Andrea Vavassore detto Guadagnino, 1556. | Italian | | 1556 JL |
| Erasto et i suoi compassioneuoli auuenimenti che gli successero. Opera dotta e morale, di greco tradotta in volgare. Con una tauola in fine delle cose degne di memoria, e con somma diligenza corretto. Venetia: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1566. | Italian | | 1566 JL |
| Erasto et i suoi compassioneuoli auuenimenti che gli successero. Opera dotta et morale di greco tradotta in volgare. Nuouamente ristampata, et con diligenza corretta. Con la tauola delle cose degne di memoria. Venetia: Giolito de Ferrari, 1558. | Italian | | 1558 JL |
| Erasto et i suoi compassioneuoli auuenimenti che gli successero. Opera dotta et morale, di greco tradotta in volgare. Con vna tauola in fine delle cose degne di memoria, e con somma diligenza corretto. Venetia: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1565. | Italian | | 1565 JL |
| Erasto et i suoi compassioneuoli auuenimenti, che gli successe; opera dotta, et morale, di greco tradotta in volgare. Venetia: Francesco di Leno, 1542. | Italian | | 1542 JL |
| Erasto. I compassineuoli auenimenti di Erasto. Opera dotta et morale, di greco ridotta in volgare. ... Con vna noua tauola delle cose degne di memoria. Venetia: Agostino Bindoni, 1558. | Italian | | 1558 JL |
| Erastus: or, the Roman prince. Being a more full account of that famous history of the seven wise masters. With many pleasant additions of excellent, and divertive discourses, and songs, not unsuitable to the design of the story. London: Printed for Dorman Newman [...] and Benj. Alsop [...], 1684 | English | | 1684 |
| Francis Kirkman, The history of Prince Erastus, son to the Emperour Dioclesian, and those famous philosophers called the seven wise masters of Rome. London: Anne Johnson, 1674 | English | | 1674 |
| Gli compasioneuol auuenimenti di Erasto, opera dotta, & morale, di greco tradotta in uolgare. Di nuouo con somma diligenza corretta, et ristampata. Con vna tauola delle cose degne di memoria. Venezia: Giovanni Martinelli, 1580. | Italian | | 1580 JL |
| Gli compasioneuol auuenimenti di Erasto, opera dotta, & morale, di greco tradotta in volgare. Di nuouo con somma diligenza corretta, & ristampata. Con una tauola delle cose degne di memoria. Venezia: Giacomo Simbeni, 1580. | Italian | | 1580 JL |
| Gli compassioneuoli auuenimenti di Erasto; opera dotta, & morale, di greco tradotta in volgare. Di nuouo ... corretta, & ristampata. Torino: Niccolò Bevilacqua, 1581. | Italian | | 1581 JL |
| Histoire Pitoyable du Prince Erastus, Fils de Diocletian, Empereur de Rome. [...] Orléans, Eloy Gibier, 1576 | French | | 1576 JL |
| Histoire mémorable du prince Erastus, fils de Dioclétian, empereur des Romains. Lyon: Pierre Rigaud, 1604 | French | | 1604 |
| Histoire mémorable du prince Erastus, fils de Dioclétian, empereur des Romains. Lyon: s.n., 1604 (lost) | French | | 1637 |
| Histoire pitoyable du Prince Eraste fils de dioclétien, traduite de l'Italien. Lyon: s.n., 1584 | French | | 1584 |
| Histoire pitoyable du Prince Erastus fils de Diocletien, Empereur de Rome [...] Paris: printed for Robert Le Mangnier, 1570. | French | | 1570 JL |
| Histoire pitoyable du Prince Erastus, fils de Diocletien Empereur de Rome. [...] Paris: Nicolas Bonfons, 1587 | French | | 1587 |