A 15th-Century Castilian Translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron
In 1496 the first “complete” translation of the Decameron was printed in Castilian. Far from being faithful to the original text, the anonymous translator made significant changes to the structure of the text and even the content of the individual novelle. This begs the following questions: how was the Decameron read in the 15th century? Which novelle were favoured, and why? How important is the original structure to the reader’s understanding of the text?
Bio: Emily Di Dodo completed her BA and MSt in Medieval and Modern Languages (Italian and Spanish) at the University of Oxford. She is now in the second year of her DPhil, working on a critical edition of the medieval Castilian translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron. Her research interests include medieval philology, textual criticism, reception studies, translation theory, and Spanish and Italian medieval literature.
