Alatiel o del tempo reversibile. Teologia e mondanità in Decameron, II 7.

The paper outlines the interdiscursive connections between Decameron, II 7 and one of the most debated quaestiones de potentia Dei, and it highlights the parodic dimension of Boccaccio’s discourse. In Boccaccio’s story, which, from the narrator’s point of view, should demonstrate the infallibility of divine action, Alatiel ‘re-establishes’ her lost virginity with a false account of her past adventures. In the first half of the fourteenth century, the topic of infallibility was implied in the consideration of God’s omnipotence and related to the quaestio as to whether God can undo the past and restore virginity. Boccaccio borrowed from the quaestio de corrupta the motifs of lost and restored chastity and of an erased past event. In his tale, parody does not issue from a reversal of the source but from abasement of the original theme. The power to annul a past event does not pertain to God, but is instead a human attribute which is effective among other men. Boccaccio borrowed from the quaestio de corrupta the motifs of lost and restored chastity and of an erased past event. In his tale, parody does not issue from a reversal of the source but from abasement of the original theme. The power to annul a past event does not pertain to God, but is instead a human attribute which is effective among other men.