Note 474 — Chapter XIII

Baldelli tells us that Pilatus left Boccaccio in 1362, but this is not so, for they went together to see Petrarch in Venice in 1363 (see infra). Baldelli's assertion is probably founded on the obscure and doubtful letter of Boccaccio to Francesco Nelli (Corazzini, p. 131), from which we learn that Boccaccio went to Naples on the invitation of Acciaiuoli, as we suppose, in 1362. This letter, which is very long, is dated, according to Corazzini, August 28, 1363. Now before September 7, 1363, Nelli was dead of the plague in Naples, as appears from Petrarch's letter (Sen., III, i., September 7, 1363). Hortis (Studi, p. 20, n. 3) is of opinion that this letter is apocryphal. Todeschini (Opinione sulla epistola del priore di S. Apostolo [sic] attribuita al Boccaccio, Venice, 1832) convinced Hortis of this. Todeschini does not believe in this visit to Naples, and in fact the only notice we have of it is contained in the letter he discards. His arguments are as follows. Until May, 1362, Boccaccio dwelt certainly in Tuscany, where in 1361, or more probably in 1362, Ciani visited him, and whence he wrote Petrarch the letter we have lost to which Petrarch replied in the noble letter I have cited above (Sen., I, 5) on May 28, 1362. (Cf. Fracassetti's note to this letter.) It is not possible that Boccaccio can have been in Naples between the autumn of 1361 and May, 1362, because he himself tells us that for three years he was with Pilatus, who enjoyed his hospitality and from whom he learned to understand Homer. Now it is certain that he did not know Pilatus before 1360, and was with him till 1363, when, as we shall see, they visited Petrarch together in Venice. (Cf. Fracassetti his note to Fam., XVIII, 2.)