Primavera Medievale, preview of the June reenactment. This year the event will be held from April 24th to 27th and will be dedicated to Boccaccio.
There is certainly something very intimate in the rediscovery of the Middle Ages. Perhaps the need to rediscover a latent spirituality, perhaps the allure of mystery or perhaps pure curiosity. Whatever the reason for this interest, the Mercato delle Gaite was born with the intention of satisfying these requests. For almost forty years it has strived to make known a Middle Ages that were sublime, but at the same time human, so much so that every visitor finds a part of themselves in it. For almost forty years it has spoken of everyday life and special events, of famous people and the common man. It accompanies visitors to places where medieval life still pulsates within the walls of buildings. As Bernard of Chartes said: “we are dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants: the experience of men who preceded us lifts us up and allows us to look far ahead”. Seen in this light, history helps to clarify everyday reality and knowledge does not remain an abstract curiosity. Over the centuries, the approach to the Middle Ages has changed: the Enlightenment denied it, Romanticism saw it as a mysterious setting for the novel. Modern historiography has conducted a study of the everyday life and life of the common man, making this era very familiar. Talking about the Middle Ages today is an indication of a society that does not want to forget; it goes beyond a simple fashion phenomenon. This is the Mercato delle Gaite.
The growing success has then broadened the horizons, with an increasingly rich calendar. Thus was born the Medieval Spring, a preview of the June re-enactment. This year the event will be held from 24 to 27 April and will have a particular and ambitious theme Around Boccaccio on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of his death. Known for being the author of the Decameron, the collection of one hundred short stories in the vernacular written around 1350, Boccaccio was an all-round scholar, as well as a man full of fragility. A great admirer of Dante, a friend of Petrarca, he played a key role in the panorama of the 14th century. The four Gaite have always used the tales of the Decameron and their protagonists in the animations of their competitions (gastronomic, crafts, market): Calandrino, Pampinea, Giannotto, Masetto, Tancredi, Frate Alberto, Elisabetta, Guglielmo Rossiglione, Federico Degli Alberighi, Chichibio, Frate Cipolla, Jancofiore, Salabaetto, Andreuccio da Perugia. Furthermore, there is only one autograph letter by Giovanni Boccaccio, written in Certaldo in 1366 and is preserved in the State Archives of Perugia.
The four days will be full of events: a photographic exhibition that tells the first ten years of the festival, conferences, book presentations, gastronomic-cultural meetings on the theme of cooking in the tales of the Decameron, medieval archery workshops; the four gaite will reopen and animate their taverns and their ancient shops; streets, alleys and squares will be animated by musicians and jesters. In particular, on Saturday 26 April, a conference entitled Boccaccio, the Decameron and the Historians with illustrious historians and medievalists; on Sunday 27, a conference on the theme Music and Giovanni Boccaccio and a concert of medieval music The Grace of the Vernacular. Music in the Time of the Three Crowns: Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca.
Alfredo Properzi
