Category: Archives and Special Collections

Recently, Walsh Library acquired this copy of Il Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio under Lionardo Salviati published in Venice by Alessandro Vecchi in 1602.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an illegitimate son of a Tuscan merchant and French woman born in Paris who would go on to write his most famous work, Il Decameron, after his education in Certaldo and Naples. This work became one of the classics of world literature, and a model for later efforts in developing a distinctively Italian literary style because of his use of Italian over Latin and using everyday prose as opposed to poetry.

The recently acquired redaction of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron by Lionardo Salviati is one of the most important and influential editions of this popular work. Boccaccio’s original work, containing ten tales from ten noble Florentine characters avoiding the plague in a countryside villa, was completed in 1353 following the Black Death epidemic of 1348. These tales range from the erotic to the tragic and were written in a vernacular Florentine language that reflects the spoken language of the time – a departure from the tradition of using Latin. The tales caused controversy due to their unflattering portrayal of nobles and clergy and in 1559 the Decameron was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books), a list published by the Catholic Church. This list of publications were texts deemed heretical or in contrary to Chrisitan morality. During the time of its ban, the Reformation was underway, and the Catholic Church was banning literature that portrayed the Church poorly.

The Index of Forbidden Books was active from 1560 to 1966. An example can be seen in this 1930 edition titled Index of Prohibited Books. This copy lists many unrecognizable texts in Latin; however, there are a few authors readers will know, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In addition to the full lists, the archives holds pamphlets that prohibit reading materials, often time coming from parishes as they directed parishioners on what was safe to read and what they should avoid. Hence the idea of book bans has been around for quite some time. The Decameron was so popular, however, it was difficult to ban even in a century before the internet and the rise of public libraries.

About five years later, in 1564 the Decameron was placed on a list the Catholic Church would consider allowing followers to read after suitable editing and revision of the text had taken place. One such revision that was sponsored took place in 1573 by Vincenzo Borghini. However, the redaction was deemed unsatisfactory and in 1582 Salviati produced his redacted edition with the addition of woodcuts to represent the stories which was dedicated to Giacomo Boncompagni, Duke of Sora and son of Pope Gregory XII.

Lionardo (Leonardo) Salviati (1540-1589) was born to an eminent Florentine family and is known for being an Italian scholar and academician. He studied under Piero Vettori, established himself in literary circles, and became involved in linguistics. Salviati’s revision began once he had entered the service of Giacomo Boncompagni who had obtained the authorization from the Catholic Church for Salviati to undertake the revision.

Salviati transformed the characters, turning the clergy into lay people while select lay people turned into persons of other faiths, and brought the tales in line with Christian morality but rarely cut out the erotic parts. Over the centuries Salviati’s work faced its own criticism. Salvati was accused of butchering Boccaccio’s work while others saw his efforts to respect the original work given the parameters he had to work within while revising. Regardless, without Lionardo Salviati the suppression of Boccaccio’s Il Decameron would have continued. Today, a truly unrevised text may not even exist as people themselves often edited their personal copies as they saw fit, so the original text may have been lost to time.

Since 1348, Il Decameron has been prohibited, redacted and censored, but ultimately went on to become one of the most influential books in world literature that has gone on to inspire authors such as Geoffry Chaucer and William Shakespeare.

References

1. Bergin, T. G., & Speake, J. (Eds.). (1987). Salviati, Leonardo (1540 – 1589). In The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance (1st ed.). Market House Books Ltd. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6MTM4MjI4Nw==?aid=237419
2. Boccaccio, Giovanni. (2018). In P. Lagasse & Columbia University, The Columbia Encyclopedia (8th ed.). Columbia University Press. https://search.credoreference.com/articles/Qm9va0FydGljbGU6NjE3NzA2?summaryArticle=true&aid=237419

A wordless novel, also known as woodcut novels, is a graphic narrative genre of literature that uses sequences of textless images to tell a story often using woodcuts or other relief printing techniques. With roots in the German Expressionist movement that emphasized emotion and responses, the aggressive black and white images produced by woodcuts enjoyed a revival during the early 20^th century.¹ The content typically contains socialist themes, expressing struggles against capitalism, or stories with strong social messages such as frustration at social injustice.²

These novels developed alongside the silent cinema that displayed thematic elements from fantastic and realistic worlds capturing the already familiar with black and white visuals that told a story.¹ Essentially, wordless novels became a personal and portable silent film.¹ But much like silent films fell out of favor and were superseded by the “talkies”, wordless novels had also reached their peak around 1929-1931. They further fell out of favor during World War II in both Germany, where it was viewed as degenerative art, and in the United States because of the socialist views they contained.

The first book of this type was created by Frans Manereel (30 July 1889-3 January 1972) a Belgian painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France and favored woodcuts as his primary mode of expression to his death in 1972.¹ Over the course of his life, Manereel produced numerous illustrations and over fifty wordless novels.

Soon enough other artists followed such as Otto Nückel (6 September 1888-12 November 1955) a German painter, graphic designer, illustrator, and cartoonist. Unlike others, Nückel used lead instead of wood to create his woodless novels because of a lack of wood during World War I. Due to his use of lead, Nückel was able to create finer lines in addition to creating depth and focus on his illustrations.¹

Lynd Ward (26 June 1905-28 June 1985), an American artist and novelist created a wordless book called Gods’ Man, which established his reputation as an illustrator. It was a sought-after book during the Great Depression, and is considered a precursor to the graphic novel.³ Where the graphic novel combines text and imagery much like comic strips. Ward’s artistic vision was inspired by illustrations such as those found in Gustave Doré’s Bible.³ Much like Nückel deviated from traditional woodcut so did Ward by using wood engraving which allowed him to create finer lines and more details.² While there are other artists that followed, these three names are the most well-known when wordless novels are discussed.

Within the Archives and Special Collections Center, there are two wordless novels. They are dark stories that trace the tragic lives of their protagonist. The second is by Lynd Ward and is a 1930 fifth printing of God’s Man. This wordless novel tells the story of a man who sells his soul for a magic paintbrush which resembles the decorative clock hand. There are 139 wood engravings to tell this Faustian story about an artist “who signs a contract with a masked figure in exchange for fame and fortune. He gains success but soon becomes disillusioned when he discovers the extent to which money, in the guise of his mistress, has corrupted every facet of society. When he assaults her, he is thrown into jail. He eventually escapes, is chased from the city by an angry mob, and jumps into an abyss to avoid his captors. A woman, living alone in the woods, discovers his body and nurses him back to health. The artist discovers happiness in her simple country life. The woman gives birth to their child, and they seem totally content until a masked figure appears and commands the artist to follow him to the summit of a cliff. When the figure removes his mask, revealing himself as the embodiment of Death, the artist recoils and falls off the edge of the cliff to his death”.¹

The second is by Otto Nückel and is a 1930 printing of Destiny. There are over 200 lead-cut prints that tells the story of a woman in Western civilization during the 19^th century. This story

“traces the tragic life of an impoverished woman who is constantly victimized not only by men but by a culture that offers little opportunity for women to survive. The heroine’s drunken father and overworked mother die early in her life, leaving her alone to survive. She works for a farmer in a village where she is seduced by a traveling salesman, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. After imprisonment for the murder of her unwanted child, she works as a prostitute, forsakes a chance for a traditional relationship, murders a man with an ax during a drunken revelry, and is shot by the police as she jumps to her death from a window of an upper story room”.¹

Both books were a ‘Gift of Otto Baum’ to the University. If you would like to view these books, please submit a Research Appointment Request and reference their catalog records which can be found here for God’s Man and here for Destiny.

References

1. Beronä, D. A. (2008). Wordless Books : The Original Graphic Novels. Abrams.
2. Postema, B. Chapter 4: Long-Length Wodless Books: Frans Masereel, Milt Gross, Lynd Ward, and Beyond. In The Cambridge history of the graphic novel(First paperback edition) 2018. Cambridge University Press.
3. Lynd Ward as illustrator. Lynd Ward As Illustrator | Georgetown University Library. (2001, June 4). https://library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/lynd-ward-illustrator