Boccaccio and the Stars: Astrology in the ‘Teseida’

In Boccaccio's epic, the Teseida, the narrative of events is scattered with references to the rising constellations and positions of the planets. Whether or not Boccaccio actually believed in astrology (as he did to some degree), the zodiac is a set of publicly recognized symbols for various kinds of action and states of mind, and Boccaccio might well have considered poetically correlating the astral positions with his narrative. Numerous scholars have pointed out the meanings of astronomical passages in the writings both of Dante, whom Boccaccio imitated in many ways, and of Chaucer, whose astrology-filled Knight's Tale is based on the Teseida. Quaglio, investigating the extent of Boccaccio's astronomical knowledge, is not concerned with the literary uses of that knowledge. Earlier critics, assuming that the narratives were autobiographical, investigated some of the astronomical passages in search of historical dates for Boccaccio's affair with Fiammetta; but the confusion of calendars and lack of sufficiently detailed information in the texts resulted in a variety of answers and no way to judge among them. At the same time many of the astronomical verses that seemed unrelatable to Boccaccio's own romance were left unmentioned.