[292] Rajna, I Reali, p. 320, fixes the date of its composition at a little before 1420.
[293] Ibid. p. 3.
[294] I Reali, pp. 311-319.
[295] The Storie Nerbonesi were published in two vols. (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1877), under the editorship of I.G. Isola. The third volume forms a copious philological and critical appendix.
[296] Guerino was versified in octave stanzas, by a poet of the people called L'Altissimo, in the sixteenth century.
[297] See I Novellieri Italiani in Verso by Giamb. Passano (Romagnoli, 1868). The whole Decameron was turned into octave stanzas by V. Brugiantino, and published by Marcolini at Venice in 1554. Among Novelle versified for popular reading may be cited, Masetto the Gardener (Decam. Giorn. iii. 1), Romeo and Juliet (Verona, 1553), Il Grasso, Legnaiuolo (by B. Davanzati, Florence, 1480), Prasildo and Lisbina (from the Orlando Innamorato), Oliva, Fiorio e Biancifiore (the tale of the Filocopo). Of classical tales we find Sesto Tarquinio et Lucretia, Orpheo, Perseo, Piramo, Giasone e Medea.
[298] Tancredi Principe di Salerno, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1863. Il Marchese di Saluzzo e la Griselda, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1862.
[299] See above, [p. 212]. The literary hesitations of an age as yet uncertain of its aim might be illustrated from these romances. Of Ippolito e Leonora we have a prose, an ottava rima, and a Latin version. Of Griselda we have Boccaccio's Italian, and Petrarch's Latin prose, in addition to the anonymous ottava rima version. Of the Principe di Salerno we have Boccaccio's Italian, and Lionardo Bruni's Latin versions in prose, together with Filippo Beroaldo's Latin elegiacs, Francesco di Michele Accolti's terza rima and Benivieni's octave stanzas. Lami in his Novelle letterarie (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1859) prints an Italian novella on the same story, which he judges anterior to the Decameron. Later on, Annibal Guasco produced another ottava rima version; and the tale was used by several playwrights in the composition of tragedies.
[300] La Storia di Ginevra Almieri che fu sepolta viva in Firenze (Pisa, Nistri, 1863).
[301] The same point is illustrated by the tales of the Marchese di Saluzzo and the Principe di Salerno, which produced the novels of Griselda and Tancredi. See notes to [p. 250], above.