Boccaccio Filo

Text versions

  • Old French: Floire et Blancheflor, ca. 1160, composed in the area of the Loire valley,
  • copied by a French author, who translated it into a romance by the end of the 12th c.: Floire et Blanchefleur (so called ‘aristocratic version’)
  • Perhaps commissioned by a female patron (there are no chivalric, heroic, or military aspects in the text)
  • German or Dutch version: Trierer Floyris, ca. 1170
  • Middle High German version by Konrad Fleck, ca. 1215/1220
  • Dutch version II by Diederik van Assenede: Floris ende Blancefloer (middle of the thirteenth century)
  • Norwegian version: Flores saga ok Blankiflur, ca. 1250, anonymous, prose translation from the French version Floire et Blanchefleur
    Swedish version: Flores och Blanzeflor, ca. 1302-ca. 1312. This was also translated into Danish
  • Middle English version: ca. 1250 Floris and Blauncheflour
  • Old Norse version ca. 1300: Flores saga ok Blankiflur
  • Italian versions: ca. 1340: Cantare “Fiorio e Biancofiore”, northern Italy
  • Italian: Boccaccio: Il filocolo ca. 1340/45
  • Free Italian adaptation: Leggenda della Reina Rosana di Rosana sua figliuola (14th c.)
  • Greek version: Diegesis exairetos erotike kai xene Phloriu tu paneutychus kai kores Platzia Phlores, end of the 14th, early 15th c.
  • Byzantian versions: Phlorios and Platzia Phlore, ca. late 14th or early 15th c.
  • German prose novel, 1499, anonymous: Ein gar schone newe histori der hochen lieb des kuniglichen Fursten Florio und von seyner lieben Biancefora (printed version)–reprinted in 1500, 1530, 1558, 1560, 1562, 1587
  • Italian version by L. Dolce: L’ Amore di Florio e Biancifiore (1532)
  • Czech version: Czech version: Floria z Hispanij, a geho milee panie Bianczeforze, 1519
  • German version by Hans Sachs, Florio des kunigs son auss Hispania mit der schoenen Bianceflora (1551)
  • Jiddish versions based on the German text by Sachs and on the prose novel, 17th and 18th centuries
  • Also Spanish version: La historia de los dos enamorados Flores y Blancaflor (1512)
  • This was translated into French in 1554

woodcut thumbnail decoration

See also Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1782

Comparison with Floris’ and Blanchefloris’ love by Comtessa de Dia