Narrative Prophylaxis

In the NGV collection online you can find an engraving attributed to Heironymous Cock (date not recorded) that was purchased by the Felton Bequest in 1923. It is a picture of the Italian writers: Cavalcanti, Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Politian and Ficinus. Cock (1518-1570) was a Flemish painter, etcher and distributor of prints. Regarded as one of the most important print publishers of his time, his printing house published more than 1,100 prints over a 22 year period. While Cock is not well-known today, he was responsible for popularizing the work of contemporary artists including Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Two of Bruegel’s ‘Seasons’ works – Summer and Spring – published by Cock are in the NGV collection.

There is also an NGV reference to a photograph of a painting by the English, late 19th century, artist Charles Cattermole R.I. The painting, ‘The Boccaccio Romance’ hung proudly in Alfred Felton’s front sitting room and was sadly not acquired by the NGV from the auction of Felton’s artworks after his death.

Boccaccio has found renewed interest today due to his storytelling in ‘The Decameron’ which was published in 1353 as a result of the first wave of the Black Death in Europe five years earlier. ‘The Decameron’ is a collection of 100 tales which are witty, ribald and moralistic, told by ten people sheltering outside Florence while the plague rages in the city below. Not surprisingly, ‘The Decameron’ features in suggested reading lists as the current pandemic ‘rages’.

There are a number of current reading lists to help us get through these troubled times including: The Guardian’s – ‘Dystopian reading list, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/15/books-to-read-while-quarantined-coronavirus, ‘Literature in the time of coronavirus’, https://pen.org/literature-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-reading-list/, and the New Daily – ‘Coronavirus reading list’, https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/books/2020/03/21/coronavirus-reading-list-australia/

There is also the movie version of ‘The Decameron’ made by Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1971 which is quite a romp!

Jill Dwyer very helpfully directed me to a recent journal article by Martin Marifioti: ‘Post-Decameron Plague Treatises and the Boccaccian Innovation of Narrative Prophylaxis’. Of particular interest in this article are the thoughts of Castore Durante – a physician in Rome who published a ‘good health manual’ in 1586. Durante says: “a man who wishes to be healthy should stroll through gardens, contemplate the greenery and peaceful atmosphere, converse with jovial and eloquent friends, with music and songs, because with these things virtue is restored; and since virtue and strength increase with food, wine and pleasant odors, with peace and happiness, and by leaving behind things that depress, and by conversing with friends, it is therefore worthwhile to listen to agreeable stories, fables and pleasant discussions, with music and songs, and with entertaining lessons”.

If Durante were writing today, his sage advice would suggest that these things could and should be done virtually with a blog!