Note 322 — Chapter VII

We do not know when, if at all at this time, Boccaccio returned to Naples. The only testimony by which Baldelli, Witte, and Koerting hold that he was in Naples in 1345 is the passage in the De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, Lib. IX, cap. 25, where he narrates, as though he had been present on the occasion, the terrible end of Philippa la Catanese (see infra). Witte, however, wishes to support this evidence by an interpretation of certain words in the letter to Zanobi, Longum tempus effluxit (see Corrazini, op. cit., p. 33). Hortis, Gaspary, and Hauvette, however, assert that in the De Casibus, u.s., Boccaccio does not actually say he was present on the occasion mentioned, but only says, quæ fere vidi, while the passage in the letter to Zanobi, they say, refers to Acciaiuoli. Lastly, Hecker observes that the words of Boccaccio seem to prove that he was in Naples in 1345. In fact, speaking of the condemnation and torture of the Catanese as accomplice in the assassination of King Andrew he says: "quædam auribus, quædam oculis sumpta meis describam."