Decameron is a work that shows an example of a variety of Mediterranean cultures and exchanges between East and West. Arab Islamic culture in the Middle Ages entered Europe and enriched Western culture, and its influence appeared in Decameron. It is a ...
Decameron is a work that shows an example of a variety of Mediterranean cultures and exchanges between East and West. Arab Islamic culture in the Middle Ages entered Europe and enriched Western culture, and its influence appeared in Decameron. It is a known fact that the frame structure of the Arab world's collection of short stories, “One thousand and One Nights,” and that of “Decameron” are similar. The story of Sindbad spread in the Arab world and later entered as part of the largest collection of short stories, "One Thousand and One Nights" but the story of Sindbad already entered Europe with various titles and versions. This study regarded the frame structure of Decameron as an important factor that had a lot of influence on European literature, and the interrelationship of the frame structure of The Seven Sages of Rome, a version of Sindbad, and the frame structure of Decameron. I would like to compare and analyze the influence relationship. In addition, the influence of Arab Islamic culture will be confirmed by studying how the story in Seven Sages of Rome and the story of Petrus Alfonsi's Latin book Disciplina Clericalis are transformed into the story of Decameron.
The Sindbad story spread to the West in a variety of languages, with different titles and content. As various stories are revised, the Asian version and the Western version show a lot of difference. Many scholars see the origin of this story as India. Alessandro D'Ancona argues that the Sindbad story came to Europe through the Crusades. In addition, there are theories that were handed down by Spanish Andalusian scholars who went to know the cities of the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor, and that the French kingdom was handed down by the French when they conquered Jerusalem in 1099. Anyway, I Sette Savi di Roma's version of Sindhvard came to Italy in the early 13th century, assuming it was introduced to Europe around 1150.
The Seven Sages of Rome is a framed collection of folktales containing exempla of a didactic character in the mid-13th century. The frame structure of Decameron was a new type of narrative that could not be seen by medieval writers before, thus arousing interest and curiosity of the contemporaries. The common point between the two works of Decameron and Seven Sages is that they talk about delaying time in order to escape from the death. Another common point is that framed stories and content are interdependent. The interdependence relationship between the frame and the content is more direct and clear in Seven Sages than Decameron. The prince is in danger of dying, and the seven wise men act to postpone execution. The frame structure of Decameron is much more systematic and structured than Seven Sages, and the interdependence relationship between the framed story and the stories in the frame is more detailed and organic.
The fourth story on the seventh day of Decameron is important because it is in both the story of the 4th sage of Seven Sages, Lentolus and the story of the well in Chapter 14 of Disciplina Clericalis. The eighth story of the tenth day of Decameron, the story of friendship, and the 2nd episode of Disciplina Clericalis , are similar in large plot and composition. The 10th story of the eighth day of Decameron and the 10 boxes of episode 15 of Disciplina Clericalis have a similar frame of deception and deception. Although Boccaccio was influenced by the stories of Seven Sages and Disciplina Clericalis , it is characterized by reorganizing the same story and enhancing the reality by more clearly describing the name, background, character's character and behavior, and the causal relationship of the event.
One of the important elements in Decameron where you can feel the oriental atmosphere is the garden at the beginning of the third day. Scholars argue that it was Islam that influenced the image of the mysterious Western garden. According to Basile, the shape of the garden dates back to ancient Persian culture and was passed down to the Arabs by Persian culture.
Arab Islamic cities, people, and culture can be seen everywhere in the story in the frame of Decameron. Unlike many Italians of his day, Boccaccio views Islamic cities as a place of prosperity, luck, and love, and portrays Arab figures like Saladin as generous figures. In Decameron, Boccaccio expresses the artist's ideal of an open world without boundaries and a world beyond cultural and religious conflicts through Saladin and talks about peaceful coexistence based on mutual understanding. The central theme of Decameron X,9 is the friendship between Mr. Torello from the Christian world and Sultan Saladin, the symbol of the Islamic world.
In Decameron, the Islamic world is also a land of opportunities that give wealth and honor that the Christian world did not.