ABSTRACT
To return once again to Boccaccio’s comments to Mainardo on the reading of his ‘nugae’, not only do these cause interpretive problems for historians of reading, but literary historians have spilled much ink debating whether they should be under stood as the sincere feelings of a mature author embarrassed by his youthful compo sitions, or simply as posturing. The difficulty in establishing a consensus is partly due to a lack of other written evidence of Boccaccio’s views, together with the fact that there is material evidence in the form of the autograph manuscript of the Decameron, dating from the 1370s, which can be used to support a non-literal reading of the Epistle. This polemic neatly underlines the fundamental importance of, wherever possible, gathering information from a variety of sources, both textual and non-textual.
