Guidotto’s Prerequisites: Protecting Cultural Identity in Renaissance Italy

• In Event: Strategies for Protecting Catholic Practices and Culture

Abstract

From the mid-fifteenth century, Christians and Muslims resorted to piracy in the religious and military conflict more than in the past. However, violence did not eliminate the possibility of cordial relations, especially of a commercial nature. Even friendly associations, mostly between individuals, could develop as evidenced by the novella XLVIII in the Novellino by Masuccio Salernitano. The tale narrates the friendship between the Christian Guidotto and the Muslim Malem. The former, though, approaches the Islamic otherness through the distorting lens of cultural superiority and religious exclusivism. Alterity seems to awaken the need to reaffirm the primacy of one’s cultural heritage. It is reflected in Guidotto’s commitment with which the Islamic other is completely transformed in order to adapt to the new environment, at the expense of Malem’s original identity. At the same time, the Christian protagonist is portrayed as resisting any cultural and religious influences while living among the Moors.

Author

• Paolo Pucci, University of Vermont