Note 80 — Chapter II

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.