Beyond Borghini: The Oxford Manuscript of Sacchetti’s novelle and their New Critical Edition

Franco Sacchetti’s novelle are among the undisputed classics of early Italian literature, and their author (born Ragusa di Dalmazia, now Dubrovnik, 1332, died San Miniato al Tedesco, 1400) may be considered Boccaccio’s most important follower in the ‘golden century’ of the Italian literary language.1 However, their prominent position in literary history and criticism was not accompanied by a proportionate attention to the establishment of their text.2 Despite a relatively large number of extant manuscripts, Sacchetti’s novelle have been thus far published by means of an extremely simplified recensio. This essay explains the importance of a newly dioscovered MS. (Oxford, Wadham College, A.21.24) and establishes nerw guidelines for the critical edition od Sacchetti's novelle (published in the meantime: Firenze, Ed. del Galluzzo, 2014).