“Paremiologia e tradizione sentenziosa nella Zucca del Doni in spagnolo”

The Zucca en Spañol, a XVIth century translation of Anton Francesco Doni’s Zucca (both Venezia, Marcolini, 1551), shows that the translator was familiar with folk proverbs and sayings of cultivated origins. The tradition of the 'refranero' (collections of proverbs and its popular counterpart, the 'refranes') and that of literary works that incorporated proverbs to the characters’ utterances were well established at that time; moreover, the medieval sententious literature was still very popular in Castile. Learned literature and popular tradition were often mixed in the same texts, while proverbs (together with refranes) and wise sayings were regarded as synonimous concepts. Our translator, on the contrary, proves himself conscious of the difference between these two types of quotes: an attitude that will became more and more widespread in the modern era.