The purpose of this work is to gather together and study the truly significant elements of magic and of folk superstition present in the works of our Tuscan novellieri of the Trecento, Francesco da Barberino, Giovanni Boccaccio, Franco Sacchetti, and Giovanni Sercambi, in an attempt to see how their short-stories reflect, in their literary world, the common medieval mentality regarding magic.
The introduction defines what is meant by a history of mentality, and explains that it is characterized by (such attributes as) survivals, archaisms, affections - in short, the unconscious, unexplained elements of a certain world view. These apparently irrational elements reappear strongly in times of crisis, as was the case in the mid-fourteenth century, and condition collective life. Our four novellieri reflect this collective mental set toward magic in their novelle according to the mental structure of the social group to which they belong.
The present study has been divided into three parts. The first considers some distinctions between magic, religion and superstition with some general indications of their applicability to magic in the fourteenth century.
The second part gives a comprehensive description of the global structure of fourteenth-century society and its role in the strengthening of what may be called the magic mentality of the time. Then, through a short review of short-story writing prior to the fourteenth century, it shows how the literary genre becomes a symptom of the culture and the social class that produces, accepts and spreads it. Finally, the second part presents the four writers in turn one by one, stressing the differences in their personalities, literary background, religious beliefs, political ideas and the social class to which they belong. The conclu sion is that despite all the differences that separate them as indivi duals and as writers, we must accept the existence of a reality that goes beyond them as individuals and finds expression in their stories dealing with magic. This we define as magic culture.
The third part consists of a series of themes called from the various collections. Through the dissection, the enumeration and classification of the contents of the novelle it is possible to take note of the manner in which each novelliere expresses this collective mentality toward magic after having elaborated it in his own individual conscience and according to the mental structure of his own social group. Thus, Francesco da Barberino, a man of the law and auto-inquisitor with a good knowledge of classical and chivalric literature, not only believes in magic but in his stories tries to conciliate St. Thomas with Ovid and with chivalric literature. Boccaccio, with the ability of the writer of genius to identify himself with the fundamental tendencies of contemporary social life, succeeds in outdoing his less able, genial colleagues in casting the greatest variety of magic (spells), thanks to his exhaustive knowl edge of classical and chivalric literature, his open religiosity, and his position of degag£ writer. While Boccaccio's magic is "civic" and "courtly", Sacchetti's and Sercambi's is "rural" and "bourgeois." In fact Sacchetti and Sercambi, as spokesman of that, the lower middle class they represent, display a diffident attitude toward magic and related disciplines. They view them as elements that disturb the established order. Yet, while Sacchetti can accept only white magic because of his profound religious feelings, Sercambi, with his superficial religiosity, is superstitious. As a group, all four writers reflect the inroads that magic had made in the society of their day.