Magdalena Žáčková – Un confronto culturale attraverso la novella boccaccesca: Hynek z Poděbrad, rifacitore e traduttore del Decameron
Magdalena Žáčková
Università Carolina, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Praga, Repubblica Ceca
Abstract
A Cultural Comparison through the Boccaccian Novella – Hynek of Poděbrady, Rewriter and Translator of the Decameron
This article explores the cultural significance of Hynek of Poděbrady (1452–1492), son of King George of Poděbrady, as both poet and translator within the late medieval and early Renaissance context. The study aims to reassess Hynek’s literary image—long overshadowed by anecdotes about his amorous life—by focusing primarily on his translation of eleven novellas from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (via a German intermediary version) and, above all, on his only original prose work, the Tale about a beautiful lady named Salomena. Methodologically, the article combines historical contextualization of Hynek’s contacts with Italian and Hungarian courts with close textual analysis of the surviving manuscripts preserved in the Neuberský sborník. The results demonstrate that Hynek deliberately selected Boccaccian tales rich in mercantile realism, erotic themes, and feminine guile, thereby reshaping them for a Czech cultural milieu. In contrast, his own Salomena remains an unfinished attempt at the genre of the Boccaccian novella, focusing less on narrative intrigue and more on themes such as social inequality between spouses, the erotic dimension and the preservation of a married woman’s virtue. The conclusion suggests that Hynek’s dual role as translator and author exemplifies a creative, selective reception of Italian literature in late fifteenth-century Bohemia.
Keywords: Hynek z Poděbrad, Decamerone, translation, novella
