In the mid- to late 1330s, when he began working on
Filostrato, Boccaccio was still living at the court of Naples. The poem is part of a long series of spinoffs that stemmed from the
matière de Troie, a collection of stories that expanded upon and interwove the multiple narrative threads of the Trojan War. In the Greco-Roman tradition, the main character of the story, Prince Troiolo of Troy, is one of Priam’s numerous sons, and makes only minimal appearances in Homer and in Vergil.
During the Middle Ages, Troiolo gained visibility and featured in several works across multiple traditions such as the Roman de Troie by Benoît de Saint Maure and its multiple translations (Binduccio dello Scelto’s version is especially important for Boccaccio), the Historia destructionis Troiae by Guido
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Citation: Gelmi, Alberto. "Il Filostrato". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 September 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13050, accessed 21 November 2024.]
