Storia di Stefano (R)

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The Storia di Stefano, first edited by Rajna in 1880 (and thereby taking the siglum 'R'), is the only verse version of the Italian Seven Sages. It is designated as part of the 'Versio Italico' family, and though it is not part of the 'rama antico' tradition (e.g. Il Libro dei Sette Savi de Roma (C), Storia d'una Crudele Matrigna (M), and Versio Italica historiae septem sapientum (L)), it is sometime seen as part of that subgroup, as those texts also name the prince 'Stefano'. However, it is also sometimes grouped alongside Erasto and L'Amabile di Continentia as the later, and more varying, iterations of the Libro dei Sette Savi tradition. Despite the clear textual differences, this text is also presumed to be related to Storia favolosa di Stefano (S); D'Agostino (2022) suggests that the two share a (now lost) source text, possibly descended from Italian Prose (V) (due to the detectable influence of French Version L) (p. 181).

Storia di Stefano appears in one 15th-century manuscript. It is written in ottava rima, and consists of about 6,000 lines, composed of 706 octaves, broken into 23 cantos.

The Storia di Stefano is also unique in the stories it includes, and the order of those stories. The embedded tales in Stefano initially follow the expected Version I story order, as seen in the older 'rama antico' texts: the narrative begins with the first sage's story Canis and continues as expected through the 13th story, the sage Charaus' rendition of Puteus. However, instead of then concluding with Prince Stefano's tale, all of the previous tale-tellers have a chance to speak once more, on the 8th day. The empress tells a three-part story (listed below as separate tales, though narrated jointly), then each of the seven sages tells another tale. Malchidas's tale is also a tripartite narrative, split into three separate tales below, but usually listed as one block of narration in criticism. Therefore, before the prince at last tells Vaticinium to bring about the narrative's conclusion, 22 (or, if we divide the narratives, as below, 26) stories have already been told, with more than half of them on the final day. Rajna (1878) wryly observes the excessive, imballanced nature of this, saying: "Rassomigliano a colpi di cannone, che un esercito vittorioso si divertisse per ore ed ore a tirar contro una fortezza ridotta con indicibili sforzi ad arrendersi, in cambio di entrare dalle porte, già belle e spalancate" [They resemble cannon shots, which a victorious army would amuse itself by firing for hours at a fortress forced to surrender with unspeakable efforts, in exchange for entering through the gates, already wide open] (p. 370).

Most of the new stories added to the 8th day of Stefano are unique to this version. One - Senes - is also found in the Dolopathos tradition; none of the rest appear anywhere in the Seven Sages or Book of Sindbad narratives.


[Added by Jane Bonsall]

Identification & General Information

Title
Storia di Stefano

Tradition & Lineage

Branch of the tradition
Seven Sages of Rome


Recorded Secondary Versions

Connected Manuscripts

 Has LanguageHas LocationHas Date Range Of Production

Language & Composition

Language of version
Italian
Regional or specific language of version
Veneto
Place of composition
Northern Italy
Date of Composition
1420 - 1470


Source for date of composition
Rajna (1880), Rajna (1878)

Modern Scholarship & Editions

Modern research literature
Rajna (1880), Rajna (1878)
Modern Editions
Rajna, Storia di Stefano, figliuolo d'un imperatore di Roma (1880)


Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
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This page was last edited on 13 March 2026, at 13:12.
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