Basil, the Poet

Basil, the Poet

Notwithstanding its negative reputation, basil has transcended the years to emerge as a potent emblem of love, most notably exemplified by Boccaccio (1313-1375) in the Decameron. One narrative recounted during the lockdown amid the epidemic in Florence (Day 4, Story 5) is the sad romance of Lorenzo and Lisabetta.


Boccaccio narrates that Lisabetta is an unlucky woman who falls in love with Lorenzo, a man of inferior social status, despite her obligation to wed a wealthy gentleman. Lisabetta's brothers murder Lorenzo to thwart the realization of their amorous aspirations. Lorenzo, however, appears to Lisabetta in a dream and discloses the location of his burial site. Lisabetta excavates the corpse and, to commemorate his memory, decapitates him and conceals the skull in a pot, thereafter covering it with “the best basil from Salerno … the basil grew large and healthy, and it was sweetly perfumed”.


The narrative influenced John Keats (1795-1821), culminating in the poem "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil," which established a novel representation of basil, especially in stanzas 52-54, and concluded the enduring association between the scorpion and the pot.


Keats' poem further converted Isabella's narrative into a visual motif, frequently depicted by Victorian artists (Illustrations 6-8). Basil assumed an additional value, visual, but not exclusively. The previous pot was irrevocably smashed without revealing any scorpion.

Figure: Isabella and the Pot of Basil. Joseph Severn (1793-1879). 1877. Oil on canvas. Collection: Guildhall Art Gallery (no. KH0148). Gift, 1922. Reproduced courtesy of the City of London Corporation.

Ref.: AHPA, American Herbal Products Association. Available at: https://www.ahpa.org/herbs_in_history_basil

Voltar para o blogue