History of the Novella

The modern English word novella (French nouvelle, German Novelle, Spanish novela) comes from the Italian novella, a term that derives from the Latin novella, which is a diminutive form of the adjective novus. A Latin-English dictionary defines novus as “fresh,” “novel,” “strange,” “unusual,” “unheard-of.” In the sixth century the word gained an additional meaning and was also used to describe the laws that were added to the Justinian Code as sections 528-35. In its literary application, novella was first used in Italy to describe a short prose account of an unusual new event. The Italian Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio labeled the one hundred narratives of his Decameron (ca. 1350) variously as novellas, fables, parables, or histories: “novelle o favole o parabole o istorie.” Many scholars credit Boccaccio not only with inventing the genre, but also with introducing a new theme (actual events from everyday life) and a new medium (prose) into the mainstream of European letters (Auerbach 188-89).

The novella did not spring full-blown from Boccaccio's pen, but had several predecessors, among them the many medieval anecdotes, myths, legends, fables, and tales that circulated orally throughout Europe and that, when captured on paper, provided plot foundations for many novellas. Another significant forebear, the exemplum, can be traced to Aristotle's time. Originally a rhetorical device, the exemplum amounted to a short anecdote or story that was used as an illustrative example. During the Middle Ages the clergy wove such anecdotes into their sermons in order to hold the interest of their parishioners and to simplify or illustrate moral or theological points. Such anecdotes, believed to resemble Christ's parables, had the same dual purpose as did literature in general: instruction and amusement (utilitas and delectatio), with utilitas being of much greater importance than delectatio. Exempla became popular and the clergy began to collect them in written form so they would be available for incorporation into sermons. The first such collection, Petrus Alfonsi's Disciplina clericalis (ca. 1110), was soon followed by ones assembled by Baudri of Bourgueil (d. 1130), John of Salisbury (d. 1180), and others. Exempla also found their way into secular imaginative literature, such as Dante's Divine Comedy and, of course, novellas.