Abstract I argue here that Boccaccio combines two intertexts in Decameron 9.3, the novella of Calandrino’s false pregnancy. The first is the narrative of the Annunciation; the second is the ‘Tale of the Three Rogues’ of the Panchatantra and Kalīla wa-Dimna. Through the ‘Tale of the Three Rogues,’ Boccaccio rewrites the scene of the Annunciation as a tale of group rhetorical trickery. The tripartite salutation of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary becomes the respective salutations of three tricksters to their foolish victim. As the divine Word becomes human words in Boccaccio’s novella, so also the ‘Tale of the Three Rogues,’ a fable previously without definite time or place, becomes set in early trecento Florence with known historical individuals. With his syncretism of biblical and South Asian narratives, Boccaccio explores the power of everyday language to produce nearly miraculous effects in the mind and body.
Alexander L. Brock (Tue,) studied this question.