Note 222 — Chapter V

Floire et Blanceflor, poèmes du XIII. siècle, pub. d'après les MSS., etc., par Edélestand du Méril (Paris, 1856). I say from whom he had the story, because it seems to me certain that in Naples he must have seen or heard these poems. The Provençal troubadours, especially Rambaldo di Vaqueiras, sang the loves of Florio and Biancofiore, and Boccaccio himself in the Filocolo affirms that the legend was known and popular in Naples. It has been contended by Clerc, Discours sur l'état des lettres au XIV. siècle in Hist. Littér., II, 97, that Boccaccio's work is only an imitation of the French poems. This cannot be upheld. The legend was everywhere in the Middle Age. It was derived from a Greek romance, and many of the happenings and descriptions used by Boccaccio are to be found in the Greek romances. Cf. Zumbini, Il Filocolo, in Nuova Antologia, December, 1879, and January, 1880.