BOCCACCIO, GIRALDI AND FIRENZUOLA IN JUST ONE PLAY? LOPE DE VEGA AND THE REWRITING OF "NOVELLE"

Abstract

In this paper I will try to defend the possibility that Lope de Vega used three different novelle in order to write his comedy La viuda, casada y doncella (1597). After stressing the numerous similarities between the four texts, I will analyze how Lope assembled the materials that he might have borrowed from these novellieri, and I will show that he prioritized one of them in each of the three acts of his play. I will also specify the way in which Lope must have had access to the novels of Giraldi (the Spanish translation by Luis Gaitán de Vozmediano) and of Firenzuola (the Cento novelle scelte dai più nobili scrittori compiled by Francesco Sansovino).