On 19 December 1849 as the first number of
The argument of the sestet is especially interesting. It intimates a relation between the artist and an ideal Nature that is mediated by an intense love-relation with a beloved woman—in this case, Boccaccio's Fiammetta. The thought parallels a characteristic pattern of DGR's thinking.
The historical Fiammetta was reputed to be Maria d'Aquino, the daughter of the Count and Countess of Aquino. He is said to have met her and fallen in love with her in 1338 when he saw her in church. This kind of biographical speculation was regularly accepted by nineteenth-century readers like Brown and DGR, although now the formal convention of such a love-relation has thrown these matters into serious doubt.
First printed in
DGR took an intense interest in Boccaccio's Fiammetta, who is his Beatrice figure. He included six translations of Boccaccio's sonnets in Appendix II of