[319] Said by the commentators to have been an abbey, where they made cheese-soup for all comers twice a week; hence "the caldron of Altopascio" became a proverb; but quære is not the name Altopascio (high feeding) a fancy one?
[320] It does not appear to which member of this great house Boccaccio here alludes, but the Châtillons were always rich and magnificent gentlemen, from Gaucher de Châtillon, who followed Philip Augustus to the third crusade, to the great Admiral de Coligny.
[321] Sic (star con altrui); but "being in the service of or dependent upon others" seems to be the probable meaning.
[322] Apparently the Neapolitan town of that name.
[323] The name of a famous tavern in Florence (Florio).
[324] Quære a place in Florence? One of the commentators, with characteristic carelessness, states that the places mentioned in the preachment of Fra Cipolla (an amusing specimen of the patter-sermon of the mendicant friar of the middle ages, that ecclesiastical Cheap Jack of his day) are all names of streets or places of Florence, a statement which, it is evident to the most cursory reader, is altogether inaccurate.
[325] Apparently the island of that name near Venice.
[326] i.e. Nonsense-land.
[327] i.e. Land of Tricks or Cozenage.
[328] i.e. Falsehood, Lie-land.