[72] Crescini, op. cit., p. 50. Whether Abrotonia and Pampinea were the earliest of his loves seems doubtful. Cf. Renier, La Vita Nuova e Fiammetta, p. 225 et seq. Who was the Lia of the Ameto, and when did he meet her? Cf. Antonia Traversi, La Lia dell' Ameto in Giornale di Filologia romanza, n. 9, p. 130 et seq., and Crescini, Due Studi riguardanti opere minori del B. (Padova, 1882). Was she the same person as the Lucia of the Amorosa Visione? Or is the Lucia of the Amorosa Visione not a person at all? See Crescini, lucia non Lucia in Giorn. St. della Lett. It., III, fasc. 9, pp. 422-3. These are questions too difficult for a mere Englishman. An excellent paper on Boccaccio's loves is that by Antona Traversi, Le prime amanti di G. B. in Fanfulla della Domenica, IV, 19.
[73] Della Torre finds these love affairs to have befallen 1329. I have, as in almost all concerning the youth of Boccaccio, found myself in agreement with him. But cf. Hauvette, Une confession de Boccace—Il Corbaccio in Bull. Ital., I, p. 5 et seq.
[74] "O giovani schernitrici de' danni dati e di chi con sommo studio per addietro v' ha onorate; levatevi di qui, questa noia non si conviene a me per premio de' cantati versi in vostra laude, e delle avute fatiche."
[75] Cf. Crescini, op. cit., p. 108, note 1.
[76] Lib. XV, cap. x.: "... jussit genitor idem, ut pontificum sanctiones dives exinde futurus, auditurus intrarem et sub preceptore clarissimo fere tantumdem temporis in cassum etiam laboravi."
[77] A letter forged probably by Doni, who posed as its discoverer, would have confirmed this. The letter ran: "Di Pisa alli xix di aprile, 1338—Giovanni di Boccaccio da Certaldo discepolo e ubbidientissimo figliulo infinitamente vi si raccomanda." As is well known, Cino da Pistoja died at the end of 1336 or beginning of 1337.
[78] Cf. H. Cochin, Boccaccio (Sansoni, Firenze, 1901), trad. di Vitaliani.
[79] De Blasiis, Cino da Pistoia nella Università di Napoli in Arch. St. per le prov. Nap., Ann. XI (1886), p. 149. Again, the course seems to have been for six years under the same master, and although Cino was called to Naples in August, 1330, he was in Perugia in 1332. Cf. De Blasiis, op. cit., p. 149.
[80] Baldelli, Vita, p. 6, note 1, thinks this master was Dionisio Roberti da Borgo Sansepolcro. He adds that this man was in Paris in 1329, and that Boccaccio there in that year began work under him. In defence of this theory he cites a letter from Boccaccio himself to Niccola Acciaiuoli of 28th August, 1341, in which he says: "Nè è nuova questa speranza, ma antica; perocchè altra non mi rimase, poichè il reverendo mio padre e signore, maestro Dionigi, forse per lo migliore, da Dio mi fu tolto." (Cf. Corazzini, op. cit., p. 18.) We may dismiss Baldelli's argument, for we have decided that Boccaccio was in Naples in 1329, when he began the study of Canon Law. But the conjecture itself gains a certain new strength from the fact that Roberti was a professor in Naples. (See Renier, La Vita Nuova e La Fiammetta, Torino, 1879. Cf. Gigli, I sonetti Baiani del Boccaccio in Giornale St. della Lett. Ital., XLIII (1904), p. 299 et seq.) In 1328, however, he proves to have been in Paris, and in fact he did not arrive in Naples till 1338. As I have said, the course lasted six years, and even though we concede that Boccaccio began his studies under Roberti in 1338, we know that three years later, in 1341, Roberti died (Della Torre, op. cit., p. 146). Besides, in 1341 Boccaccio had returned to Florence. Roberti seems, indeed, to have been the protector rather than the master of Boccaccio, even as Acciaiuoli was, and it is for this reason that Boccaccio alludes to him in writing to Acciaiuoli in 1341 when Roberti was dead. The doctors in Naples in 1329 are named by De Blasiis, op. cit., p. 149. Among them were Giovanni di Torre, Lorenzo di Ravello, Giovanni di Lando, Niccola Rufolo, Biagio Paccone, Gio. Grillo, Niccola Alunno.
[81] Amorosa Visione, v. 171-3.