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The article focuses on the reception of the Decameron tales in Poland before 1875 when the whole collection was published. This reception is in many aspects similar to the Italian „fortuna spicciolata” of the masterpiece. The tales translated into Latin by Italian humanists were particularly popular in Poland and we refer to “Griselda” translated by Petrarca and the tale of Ghismonda and Guiscardo translated by Beroaldo and Bruni. The tales of the VI, VII and VIII day which are based on jokes and stratagems also arose the translators’ interest. Some of Polish texts are a precise translation of the original, others become a „witty anecdote” developed from Boccaccio’a motive. Among 40 Polish versions of Boccaccio’s novellas as many as 22 are dated to the second half of the XVI century and they are mainly the “comic” tales. In the next centuries the translators used to choose mainly tragic tales and Petrarca’s “Griselda” because of its didactic character. The reception is characterized by the separation of the tales from the general context constituted by the “frame” of the whole collection. All this leads to shifts of narrative techniques and influences the final significance of the text. The analysis of single translations makes us notice also some shifts within the meaning and focus. Most of all, it is about the female characters that are presented in a different way and some erotic contents, considered too provocative, that are censored which is due to cultural differences between the virtual reader of Italian original and the reader of Polish translation.
keywords in Polish:
Dekameron, Boccaccio
keywords in English:
Decameron, Boccaccio
number of pulisher's sheets:
2
affiliation:
Wydział Filologiczny : Instytut Filologii Romańskiej