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and other information, we learn of rituals and of practices of Mexico Citys crypto-

Jews, of those in other Jewish sources (syncretic ones forged in seventeenth-century

Catholic Spain, detailing inversions of Jewish or Catholic rituals), and of the cultural

absorption of Christian stereotypes of Jews.

This eclectic collection of autobiographies is not intended, nor should it be taken,

as demonstrative of true accounts of lives sullied by the Inquisition. Rather thenarratives show the understanding of the power of the word on the part of some of

those called before the Holy Office. Stories were adjusted and adapted, tones were

adopted as the prisoners grappled with confronting undefined charges deriving from

the testimony of unknown witnesses. By looking at such autobiographies (whose

veracity cannot be determined) through a kind of parallax of history, one gains a

slightly different view of a closely studied topic and is able to discern another piece

to place in the mosaic of the story of the past. In addition, the editors of this volume

have performed a useful service for anyone interested in the Inquisitions activities;

most especially for those who would like to look into various episodes recorded inthe files of the accused who appeared before inquisitorial tribunals in the Iberian

Peninsula and in the New World in the early modern period. We hope that Richard

Kagan and Abigail Dyer will continue to provide us with translations of additional

trials so as to enhance the information available for research into the Inquisition and

its history. They should be encouraged to persist in this endeavour with the same

enthusiasm and diligence as they have shown in this book.

Bar-Ilan University MoissOrfali

XXXsecondary reviewReviews of booksReviews of booksREVIEWS OF BOOKS

Richard Kuhns, Decameron and the Philosophy of Storytelling: Author as Midwifeand Pimp. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. xxiii + 177pp. $40.00.ISBN 0 231 13608 0. Simone Marchesi, Stratigrafie decameroniane. Firenze:Olschki, 2004. xxii + 154. $19.00. ISBN 88 222 5403 1.

BoccacciosDecameroncontinues to command (and repay) considerable critical interest

even in the seventh century of its reception, and these two recent studies make new

and important contributions to the field. Both studies are essentially concerned with

Boccaccios place in literary culture: Richard Kuhns contextualizes the Decameronwithin the broader cultural milieu, while Simone Marchesi delves into the text and

its intertexts in order to map Boccaccios allusive mechanisms.

Kuhnss characterization of Boccaccio as pimp is derived from the subtitle to

the text: il libro chiamato Decameron, cognominato Prencipe Galeotto (the book

called Decameron, otherwise known as Prince Galehalt). In the romance tradition,

Galeotto was the knight who acted as go-between for Lancelot and Guinevere in their

illicit love affair, and Kuhns suggests that the subtitle should be read as Prince of

Pimps, referring both to the book itself, as provider of explicitly sexual material, and

to the author, who draws the reader into a sexual relationship with his book. Theauthorial pose of the author as pimp is shown to be a literary tradition that extends

back through Ovid to the character of Socrates in Platos dialogues (who is also the

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BoccacciosDecameronis situated in the wider comparative context of world narrative

traditions. The introductory chapter is particularly useful in this regard, relating the

Western literary tradition to mythic storytelling and the development of individual

consciousness through narrative. Chapter 1 argues for the importance of visual cul-

ture as inspiration for Boccaccios storytelling methods, as evidenced by the presence

of painters in the text, and Boccaccios co-option of painterly illusionistic techniques.Chapter 2 broadens the discussion beyond Boccaccios storyworld, considering the

function of dreams and masking in storytelling, and re-presenting Boccaccios well-

known narrative personae as masked performative ritual. Chapter 3 considers the

metamorphoses of the body within theDecameron, with original readings of IV, 1 and

VIII, 7; storytelling is shown to metaphorize the sexual body, and likewise, sexual

actions metaphorize storytelling. Chapter 4 concentrates on a detailed reading of VII,

9, concluding that by his inversion of narrational and religious traditions, Boccaccio

reveals the latent content of his work, which is to scrutinize the nature of narrative

(and religious) truth itself. Chapter 5 considers the text as a total work of art, whichencompasses painting, music, dance and poetry in addition to storytelling, while

the final chapter returns to the philosophical implications of truth in storytelling,

presenting Boccaccios text in psychoanalytic terms as a transitional object, used to

relate fiction to reality.

Kuhns is not an Italianist by formation, but rather a philosopher of literature, and

there are necessarily many gaps in his knowledge of Boccaccio (most notably in his

knowledge of recent critical literature). His contention that the Decameron is a

straightforwardly pro-feminist text is perhaps a little simplistic, given recent feminist

readings (for example, Migiel). Nonetheless, both the specialist and general reader

alike will find much of interest here. At its best, this book refracts Boccaccios text

through the lens of performative and material culture, and forces the reader to

reassess it in a new light.

Simone Marchesis Stratigrafie decameronianeis concerned with the study of Boccaccios

intertextual strategies, and is directed clearly towards the Boccaccio specialist,

rather than the general reader. It is surely no accident that the organization of the

book mimics Boccaccios own structuring principles in theDecameron, with a proemial

preface, introduction, four chapters, and an authorial conclusion. The preface and

introduction set out the fundamental premises of this study: that the Decameron, like

Dantes Commediabefore it, is a text which operates on multiple levels; it is the readersrole to tease out the meanings which lie below the surface. This layered ordering of

meaning is analogous to Marchesis governing metaphor for Boccaccios intertextual

reference: the stratigrafie of the title. Marchesi suggests a three-dimensional model

of allusion, where Boccaccios literary sources are arranged one above another, each

corresponding to a different literary culture. By focusing not only on the philological

relations between texts, but also on the receptive role of the contemporary reader (or

auditor), Marchesi is able to show that Boccaccios text is targeted at and compre-

hensible by different reading communities, all of whom are able to construct their

own meanings depending on their own literary culture. In Chapter 1, Marchesisuggests that a previously-unrecognized allusion to Aristotles Rhetoricain the Proemio

is the key to unlocking Boccaccios generic definition of his text and that Quintilian

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develops this idea, contending that the authors self-defence in the Introduction to

Day IV is in fact an invitation to intertextual reflection. Tracing an allusion from

Dante through to Horaces first satire, he shows the close links between theDecameron

and Horace, not only in terms of textual allusion, but also in the deep structuring

principles of the text. Chapter 3 traces the similarities between Virgils Dido and

the character of Lisabetta (IV, 5); the links are shown through intertextual allusionnot only to the Aeneidbut also to subsequent retellings of the Dido myth in classical

and vernacular literature, such as early Dante commentaries. The final chapter

demonstrates the importance of the Calandrino cycle of tales to the meta-narrative,

by analysing a cluster of related allusions (classical, bibical, and patristic) that create

an intertextual dialogue about the nature of the narrative experience itself. In the

conclusion, Marchesi rejects narrowly philological or semiological approaches, and

argues instead for a third way of responding to the text based on Jausss

Rezeptionsthetik. In order to understand Boccaccios referential practices, we must

instead focus on the relationship between the author, his first readers, and theirhorizons of expectation. In conclusion, Marchesis book makes a very valuable

contribution to the analysis of Boccaccios intertextual practice, not least because of

his skilful incorporation of the manuscript paratext into the philological field. His

sensitivity to narrative structures and echoes is notable, and this book deserves to be

widely read.

University of Cardiff GuydaArmstrong

XXXsecondary reviewReviews of booksReviews of booksREVIEWS OF BOOKS

Ivo Biagianti, Storie di Famiglia. Nobili, capitani, dottori nei Ricordi della famigliaDe Giudici di Arezzo (14931769)(Fonti e Studi di Storia Aretina, II). Florence:Casa Ed. Leo S. Olschki, 2004. 207pp. $21.00. ISBN 88 222 54147.

In many respects, Arezzos De Giudici family embodied the spirit and experience of

the early modern service nobility, at least insofar as the term is applicable to Italian

society. They attained a measure of local prominence in the later fourteenth century,

but owed their rapid rise in the early modern period to the services they rendered to

various potentates, both in Italy and farther afield. Arezzos ancient enmity with

Florence did not prevent the opportunistic De Giudici from establishing a particu-larly close relationship with the Medici rulers of Tuscany, under whose tutelage the

familys fortunes bloomed. The steady growth of De Giudici territorial possessions

during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries inevitably led to patrimonial divisions

around which distinct family branches grew up, though the family never surrendered

its sense of solidarity or lost sight of its collective goals. Unabashed social climbers,

the De Giudici first applied themselves to the pursuit of advantageous marriages;

then became a family into which others aspired to marry. As naval commanders and

captains of war, jurists and judges, administrators and counsellors, priests and

abbesses, they increased their wealth and prestige through ministration to the greatuntil they numbered themselves among the premiere Tuscan families of the early

modern period Ivo Biagiantis Storie di Famiglia Nobili capitani dottori nei Ricordi della

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