[487] Hortis (G. B. Ambasciatore) has published this letter.
[488] Senil., V. 1. Boccaccio had received instructions to hurry back to Italy. "Vos autem domine Johannes sollicitetis commissionem vestrum et rescribentes vestrum etiam reditum festinetis."
[489] Cf. Hortis, G. B. Ambasciatore.
[490] For the following particulars see Boccaccio's letter to Petrarch. Ut te viderem, Corazzini, op. cit., p. 123.
[491] The Eclogue XIV tells us much that otherwise we should never have known as to Boccaccio's children. It is there we hear of his little daughter Violante, whom he there calls Olympia, and who died "at an age when one goes straight to heaven." "Pro Olympia," he says, in the letter already quoted, to Matteo da Signa, "intelligo parvulam filiam meam olim mortuam, ea in ætate, in qua morientes cœlestes effici cives credimus; et ideo ex Violante cum viveret, mortuam cœlestem idest Olympiam voco." Boccaccio conceived this Eclogue in a wood, and therefore he calls himself Silvio. The Eclogue roughly is as follows: Boccaccio in a sleepless and restless night full of unhappy regrets longs for the day. Suddenly a light illumines all and he hears a singing. It is the voice of Violante (Olympia), who salutes her father. "Fear not," she says, "I am thy daughter. Why should you be afraid? Canst thou doubt? Dost thou think that Violante would deceive her father? I come to thee to sweeten thy sorrow." To her Boccaccio (Silvio) answers: "I recognise thee, love does not deceive me nor my dreams; O my great delight, only hope of thy father. What god has taken thee from me, O my little daughter? They told me when I returned to Naples thou wert dead, and believing this, how long, how long I wept for thee, how long, how long I mourned thee, calling thee back to me. But what splendour surrounds thee; who are thy companions? O marvel, that in such a little space of time you should have grown so, for you seem, little daughter mine, to be already marriageable." And Violante answers: "It was but my earthly vesture that, dear, you buried in the lap of earth. These vestments, this form, this resplendent body the Madonna herself has given me. But look on my companions, have you never seen them?" And Boccaccio: "I do not remember them, but neither Narcissus, nor Daphnis, nor Alexis were more beautiful." And Violante: "And dost thou not recognise thy Mario, thy Giulio, and my sweet sisters? They are thy children." And Boccaccio: "Come, O children mine, whom I have held in my arms, on my breast, and with glad kisses heal my heart. Let us make a joyful festa, and intone a hymn of joy. Let the wood be silent, and let Arno run noiselessly." Then follows a hymn sung by Violante in honour of Jesus Christ (Codro) and of the Blessed Virgin: the most beautiful of all Boccaccio's Latin songs. And Violante departs promising, when her father will hardly let her go, that he shall soon be with her for ever in heaven.
We see here that Boccaccio had two sons, Giulio and Mario, and at least three daughters, Violante and her sisters.
[492] Cf. Crescini, op. cit., p. 259. I give the document he quotes:—
"Camarlinghi—Marzo-Aprile 1367-68—Quaderno no. 183—Uscita di condotta.
"[30 Aprile]
"Domino Iohanni Boccaccij
Mariotto simonis orlandini Barne
valorini et Bindo domini Iacobi
de Bardis