A Novel by an Epigone. «Coralbo re» and Carlo Boer

Abstract

This article examines the compositional principles of a seventeenth-century novel, Coralbo re, whose authorship remains unknown, since the name appearing on the title page, Carlo Boer, is a pseudonym. The novel presents itself as a continuation of Coralbo, the final volume of the novelistic trilogy by Giovan Francesco Biondi, who is widely regarded by both his contemporaries and modern scholars as the founder of the Italian Baroque novel. The study focuses on a comparative analysis between the source text and its continuation, highlighting the ambiguous status of Coralbo re. Although it capitalizes on the popularity of its model, the work deliberately abandons the experimental and distinctive features of Biondi’s trilogy, reverting instead to themes and atmospheres characteristic of the Spanish libros de caballerías. Following a close reading of Coralbo re, the article advances several hypotheses concerning the identity of Carlo Boer, with particular attention to the affinities between Coralbo re and another mid-seventeenth-century work, L’amor nudo alle ombre estive by Giacomo Castagnini.