The Shock of Recognition: Day V

Abstract

The laurel crown for Day V is bestowed on Fiammetta, whose physical presence is described in the Conclusion to Day IV in words so sensuous and detailed as to inspire a Botticelli:

La Fiammetta, li cui capelli eran crespi, lunghi e d’oro e sopra li candidi e dilicati omeri ricadenti e il viso ritondetto con un color vero di bianchi gigli e di vermiglie rose mescolati tutto splendido, con due occhi in testa che parean d’un falcon pellegrino e con una boccuccia piccolina\li cui labbri parevan due rubinetti … (IV. Concl. 4)

[Fiammetta, with her long and curly golden hair falling about her delicate white shoulders, her nicely rounded face glowing all over with a mixture of the true color of white lilies and red roses, her eyes black as falcons, and a sweet little mouth with lips that looked like twin rubies …] (309)

The author endears Fiammetta to us by giving her a boccuccia (little mouth) that punningly kisses his own boccaccio (big mouth). Hers is a name that, like Lauretta’s, carries thematic authority. She plays various important roles in a number of Boccaccio’s works and is understood to represent a muse-like figure reminiscent of Dante’s Beatrice and Petrarch’s Laura.¹ Why does Boccaccio describe her so copiously and evocatively at this moment? Perhaps to prepare us for a similarly ravishing experience in V. 1, where the sight of a beautiful girl will have revolutionary effects.

Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round.

—Herman Melville, “Hawthorne and his Mosses”