G r a z i a N a p o l i
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Aurelia isn’t a book of high culture but it is an erudite book which contains many elements of Italian and classical culture. It has a structure of “frame” which is composed of masques, dances, games, discussions and in which are told “novellas”. So there is a narrative part in a general “frame”.
In Italian culture of XVI century this tradition was well established. Framed Novellas and Dialogue form had their main source and pattern in Boccaccio’s Decameron and the Italian novelists of the XVI century continued the tradition and imitated it.
We have analyzed some works of the kind and have confronted them. We haven’t found a work with the same structure as Aurelia but many elements of the framing structure are similar. For example, the election of a queen of festivities: dances, games, songs, telling tales: in Decameron, Filoloco, Eptameron.
Aurelia is divided in seven days which cover the week between Christmas day and the first day of the New Year.
The framing structure is settled with the arrival of the main character - Whetstone, who is author, narrator and main character – at a noble Palace near Ravenna, the eve of Christmas.
He his a wandering Knight so is called Cavaliero Ismarito. In the palace there is a company of gentlemen and ladies of different nationalities who live courteously.
The scene of the book is in this noble Palace during the Christmas festivities on 1580. In fact, Whestone was in Italy in that period. He probably visited many Renaissance courts in Italy during his travels. It isn’t possible, however, to say which court he refers to. Some critics (Cecioni, for examples) have thought it may be the Court of Ferrara but it isn’t clear.
The palace is very elegant, and its description recalls that of Boccaccio’s Decameron in Fiesole and the Garden which is described by Pietro Bembo in Gli Asolani : another work in dialogue form perhaps source of Whetstone.
The Lord of Palace is called Philoxenus. His name has a Greek etymology and it means foreign lover. Philoxenus’ guests are mostly foreigners. There is a Scottish man, a German Doctor, an English gentleman and a Frenchman.
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