Note 102 — Chapter II
Reading edition
How far Boccaccio actually created the tale can be questioned. In the dedication to Fiammetta (Op. Volg. ix. 3), he says he found a very ancient version of his story, and translated it into rhyme and the latino volgare for the first time. Again, in the exordium to the first Book (ib. p. 10), he calls it:
una storia antica Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa Che latino autor non par ne dica Per quel ch'i' senta in libro alcuna cosa.
We might perhaps conjecture that he had discovered the legend in a Byzantine MS.