As Vika mentioned, we’ve just submitted an article on the Esposizioni project, so most of my attention has been focused on that of late. I’ve been doing some general background on the commentary tradition, and thinking about the peculiarities of this text as an oral commentary, in comparison with the more usual written ones. Since my main area of responsibility on the project is the literary references, I’ve also been thinking about how they should be encoded. I’ve already come across some tricky questions, such as how to show references to multiple authored works such as the Bible. I have also been wondering how to represent those instances when Boccaccio uses Dante as an authority, citing further passages in the Commedia to illustrate his reading of the first 17 cantos of the Inferno. Should these just be treated like the citations of other authors, or could we do more?
One of my long-term projects is the compilation of an über-bibliography of Boccaccio’s works in English translation, and I’ve just discovered an English translation of part of the Esposizioni (Esp., X, 52-66) which I can include. The passage was translated by Maggie Günsberg, and appears in Michael Caesar, ed., Dante: The Critical Heritage (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), pp. 169-71. I only know of one other English translation of part of the Esposizioni, the Accessus, which appears in Alistair J. Minnis, Medieval literary theory and criticism c.1100-c.1375 : The commentary tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 503-19 (translated by David Wallace). Cristiana, Mike and I are working towards a new English translation of the Esposizioni, but until that appears, as far as I can tell, this is all there is! (If anyone come across any extracts from Boccaccio in English translation, especially in anthologies, then do please let me know.)