''Il Guerrin Meschino'' ("Wretched Guerrin") is an Italian prose

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric k ...

with some elements of

verisimilitude In philosophy, verisimilitude (or truthlikeness) is the notion that some propositions are closer to being true than other propositions. The problem of verisimilitude is the problem of articulating what it takes for one false theory to be closer ...

, written by the Italian ''

cantastorie (; also spelled , or ) comes from Italian for "story-singer" and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images. These images can be painted ...

'', systematizer and translator from French Andrea da Barberino, who completed it about 1410. The text in eight chapter-length books circulated widely in manuscript before its first printing, in Padua, in 1473. It was a late contribution to the "

Matter of France The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French '' chan ...

" that appealed to aristocratic audiences and their emulators among the upper bourgeoisie. In a departure from Andrea's other known romances, there are no discernible French or Franco-Venetian sources for this narrative, which unfolds instead in the manner of a travel account. It draws for its details on a variety of predecessors, such as, for the oracular Tree of the Sun and the Moon, the Alexander romances, and—outside the romance tradition—on

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

'', on the " natural history" found in medieval bestiaries, and on the

legend of the Purgatory of St. Patrick ''L'Espurgatoire Seint Patriz'' or ''The Legend of the Purgatory of Saint Patrick'' is a 12th-century poem by Marie de France. It is an Old French translation of a Latin text Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii by the monk Henry of Sawtry, Sa ...

and the cosmology of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

. The

quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...

involved is the rootless Guerrino's search for his lost parents. There is an undercutting element of deconstruction of chivalrous ideals apparent from the very title: ''Guerrino'' derives from ''guerra'' "war", but ''meschino'' means, "shabby, paltry, ignoble"; the hero, cast away as a babe sold by pirates and rebaptized by his foster father ''Meschino'', the "unlucky", rises through his heroic efforts to his proper status as ''Guerr ro'', "warrior". At the end of his adventures Guerrino discovers that he is the son of Milone, Duke of Durazzo, who was himself the son of a Duke of Burgundy, so that Guerrino is of royal blood. Guerrino is the sole

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

; other characters exist only insofar as they encounter him. The far-ranging episodes create a fictional geography as seen from the Mediterranean world. Guerrin's enchanted sojourn in the cave of the Sibyl bears parallels with the Germanic traditions of

Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and 1 ...

. Prester John plays a role, offering Guerrin the ''signoria'' over half of all

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, following a battle. Most of the challenges Guerrin faces, however, are moral rather than military, even where the supernatural character of the site is explicitly non-Christian, such as the sanctuary of the Trees of the Sun and Moon. Like

, he was granted a view of

Purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...

, the ''Purgatorio di San Patrizio''. The work has had a checkered career under the scrutiny of the Church. Many modern editions reprint the bowdlerized Venetian edition of 1785, ''pubblicata con licenza dei superiori'', which suppressed all mention of the '' Sibilla Apenninica'' sited in a

grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...

on Monte Sibilla in the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

, substituting various Italian circumlocutions: Fata, Fatalcina, Ammaliatrice, Incantatrice, etc. An entire chapter, Book V, in which the Apennine Sibyl describes the other classical Sibyls, was completely suppressed. Astronomical references were also deleted by the censor. A critical text, based on Florentine Quattrocento manuscripts, was edited by Paola Moreno, and published in 2005. The work was so popular that it was translated for a Spanish audience by Alonso Hernández Alemán, as ''Guarino Mezquino''; by the time it was printed in Castilian in 1512 it had received 21 printings in Italian. It had staying power, too: the literary Venetian courtesan

Tullia d'Aragona Tullia d'Aragona (1501/1505 – March or April 1556) was an Italian poet, author and philosopher. Born in Rome sometime between 1501 and 1505, Tullia traveled throughout Venice, Ferrara, Siena, and Florence before returning to Rome. Throughout her ...

rendered it in epic verse, now "most chaste, all pure, all Christian," as ''Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino'' (Venice 1560, 2nd ed. 1594), though the source she acknowledged to the reader was the perhaps more respectable '' Amadis de Gaula''. Mozart's librettist Lorenzo da Ponte was inspired by ''Il Guerrin Meschino'' as an adolescent. In the 19th and 20th centuries, episodes from ''Il Guerrin Meschino'' have been adapted for the Italian stage, and even for children. '' Le Meravigliose avventure di Guerrin Meschino'' is a 1951 Italian film that takes its general tenor from the romance. Guerrin was adapted twice for the Italian

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s called ''fumetti'', once in 1959 in 17 installments under the title ''Guerino detto il Meschino'' and again running in the ''Corriere dei Piccoli''. ''

Guerin Sportivo The ''Guerin Sportivo'' is an Italian sports magazine. It is the oldest sport magazine in the world. Journalists who worked for the magazine include Gianni Brera, Indro Montanelli, Giorgio Tosatti, Darwin Pastorin, Carlo Nesti, Mario Sconcerti ...

'', an Italian sport and satirical weekly magazine founded in 1912 in Turin, takes its title from the protagonist.

Editions

*''Il Guerrin meschino'' (Padua: Bartholomeo de Valdezoccho & Martin de Septem Arboribus, 1473) *''Guerino il Meschino'' (Bologna: Baldassarre Azzoguidi, 1475)Cursietti, p. 597: "La seconda edizione, quella bolognese di Baldassarre Azzoguidi, presenta invece la divisione tradizionale in otto libri e l'articolazione in 282 capitoli." *''Guerino il Meschino'' (Venice: Gerardo de Lisa, 1477) *''Guerrino detto Meschino'' (Venice: Alexandro de Bindoni, 1512) *''Guerrino detto il Meschino'' (Venice: 1567) *''Guerino detto il Meschino'' (Venice: Tipografia Molinari, 1826) *''Guerrino detto il Meschino'' (Naples: Ferdinando Bideri, 1893) *''Guerrino detto il Meschino'' (Rome: Nuove edizioni romane, 1993) *''Il Guerrin Meschino'' (Rome & Padua: critical edition, Antenore, 2005)

Notes

External links

Andrea da Barberino, ''Guerin Meschino'' on-line text in twelve "canti"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guerrin Meschino, Il Romance (genre) Renaissance literature Italian fairy tales 1410s books