ABSTRACT
Troy and its history are largely incidental to Giovanni Boccaccio’s poem, and the Italian poet makes little effort to present the city as anything more than a vague backdrop for his love-story. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troy is simultaneously more believably ancient and more contemporary than its source, more political and more personal, more historical and more exemplary, more Christian and more pagan. Several passages added to Filostrato, which are reminiscent of episodes in the medieval Trojan historical narratives, show the prince either conquering on the battlefield or returning triumphant to Troy. Filostrato takes place in a vague atemporal setting that is neither ancient nor modern, but Chaucer’s Troy exists in the two worlds simultaneously: more convincingly ancient than Boccaccio’s city, it is also more infused with medieval values and practices. The Troy of Troilus and Criseyde would also have been more recognizable and immediate to its original audience than Boccaccio’s city would have been to its audience.
