Livro The Facetiae or Jocose Tales of Poggio (Volume 2)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CXXXII A FLORENTINE WHO UNCONSCIOUSLY ATE A DEAD JEW Two Jews being on their way from Venice, their place of residence, to Bologna, it came to pass that one of them fell sick, and died.

The survivor, anxious to bring the corpse back to Venice, which it was not lawful to do openly, cut it up into little pieces, put it, with aromatics and honey, into a small barrel, whence issued, in consequence, a most delightful flavour, and committed it to the care of another Jew, who was going to Venice.

This man, intending to reach Ferrara by canal, took his charge with him on the boat, and as there was a crowd of passengers, CXXXII DE 3VD1EO MORTUO ASSUMPTO IGNORANTER IN CIBUM PER FLORENTINUM Cum duo Judaei ex Venetiis, ubi habitabant, se Bononiam contulissent, accidit ut alter morbo correptus interiret.

Cupiens superstes defuncti cadaver Venetias deferri, cum palam id fieri pro- hibitum esset, minutatim concisum in parvo do- lio posuit, admixtis diversis aromatibus et melle, ita ut mirum in modum suavis ex dolio prodiret odor.

Hoc Venetias ituro Judaeo alteri commen- davit. Qui, cum navicula secum per canale Ferra- riam dolium deferret, accidit (plures enim unama Florentine happened to take his seat close to the barrel.

Night came; attracted by the fragrancy, and suspecting that some dainty was stowed away there, the glutton stealthily broached the cask, and began to taste the contents. He found them luscious, and reverted to them so frequently before morn, that he well nigh emptied the vessel, convinced that he had been eating some delicacy.

When about to leave the boat at Ferrara, the Jew took up his barrel, and, from its light weight, perceived it was empty. He screamed that he had been plundered of the corpse of his brother in Israel, and the Florentine thus became aware o...