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Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 21 December 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of which it has been said that it surpasses in verisimilitude that of just about all of his contemporaries, since they were medieval writers and often followed formulaic models for character and plot.
==
Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian:
[dʒoˈvanni bokˈkattʃo]
; 1313 – 21 December 1375)
[1]
was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of
Petrarch
, an important
Renaissance humanist
and the author of a number of notable works including the
Decameron
,
On Famous Women
, and his poetry in the Italian
vernacular
. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of which it has been said that it surpasses in
verisimilitude
that of virtually all of his contemporaries, since they were
medieval writers
and often followed formulaic models for character and plot.
Biography
The exact details of his birth are uncertain. The majority of sources state that he was born either in
Florence
or in a village near
Certaldo
where his family was from.
[2]
[3]
Giovanni Villani
, a contemporary of Boccaccio and
chronicler
, states that he was born in Paris as a consequence of an illicit relation but others denounce this as a romanticism by the earliest biographers.
He was the son of a
Florentine
merchant and an unknown woman, and almost certainly born illegitimate
.
Early life
Boccaccio grew up in Florence. His father worked for the
Compagnia dei Bardi
and in the 1320s married Margherita dei Mardoli, of an illustrious family. It is believed Boccaccio was tutored by Giovanni Mazzuoli and received from him an early introduction to the works of
Dante
. In 1326 Boccaccio moved to
Naples
with the family when his father was appointed to head the Neapolitan branch of his bank. Boccaccio was apprenticed to the bank, but it was a trade for which he had no affinity. He eventually persuaded his father to let him study law at the
Studium
in the city.
[5]
For the next six years Boccaccio studied
canon law
there. From there he pursued his interest in scientific and literary studies.
[6]
His father introduced him to the Neapolitan nobility and the French-influenced court of
Robert the Wise
in the 1330s. At this time he fell in love with a married daughter of King Robert of Naples (known as
Robert the Wise
) and she is immortalized as the character
"
Fiammetta
"
in many of Boccaccio's prose romances, particularly
Il Filocolo
(1338). Boccaccio became a friend of fellow Florentine
Niccolò Acciaioli
, and benefited from his influence as the administrator, and perhaps the lover, of
Catherine of Valois-Courtenay
, widow of
Philip I of Taranto
. Acciaioli later became counsellor to Queen
Joan I of Naples
and, eventually, her
Grand Seneschal
.
It seems Boccaccio enjoyed law no more than banking, but his studies allowed him the opportunity to study widely and make good contacts with fellow scholars. His early influences included Paolo da Perugia (a curator and author of a collection of
myths
, the
Collectiones
), the humanists Barbato da Sulmona and Giovanni Barrili, and the theologian
Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro
.
Mature years
In Naples, Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation, poetry. Works produced in this period include
Filostrato
and
Teseida
(the sources for
Chaucer
's
Troilus and Criseyde
and
The Knight's Tale
, respectively),
Filocolo
, a prose version of an existing French romance, and
La caccia di Diana
, a poem in
terza rima
listing Neapolitan women.
[7]
The period featured considerable formal innovation, including possibly the introduction of the
Sicilian octave
to Florence, where it influenced
Petrarch
.
Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the
plague
in that city of 1340, but also missing the visit of Petrarch to Naples in 1341. He had left Naples due to tensions between the Angevin king and Florence. His father had returned to Florence in 1338, where he had gone bankrupt. His mother died shortly afterward (possibly, as she was unknown – see above). Although dissatisfied with his return to Florence, Boccaccio continued to work, producing
Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine
(also known as
Ameto
) a mix of prose and poems, in 1341, completing the fifty
canto
allegorical poem
Amorosa visione
in 1342, and
Fiammetta
[8]
in 1343. The pastoral piece
Ninfale fiesolano
probably dates from this time also. In 1343, Boccaccio's father re-married, to Bice del Bostichi. His children by his first marriage had all died but he had another son, Iacopo, in 1344.
In Florence, the overthrow of
Walter of Brienne
brought about the government of
popolo minuto
("small people," workers). It diminished the influence of the nobility and the wealthier merchant classes and assisted in the relative decline of Florence. The city was hurt further, in 1348, by the
Black Death
, which killed some three-quarters of the city's population, later represented in the
Decameron
.
From 1347, Boccaccio spent much time in Ravenna, seeking new patronage, and despite his claims, it is not certain whether he was present in plague-ravaged Florence. His stepmother died during the epidemic and his father, as Minister of Supply in the city was closely associated with the government efforts. His father died in 1349 and as head of the family Boccaccio was forced into a more active role.
Boccaccio began work on the
Decameron
[9]
[10]
around 1349. It is probable that the structures of many of the tales date from earlier in his career, but the choice of a hundred tales and the frame-story
lieta brigata
of three men and seven women dates from this time. The work was largely complete by 1352. It was Boccaccio's final effort in literature and one of his last works in Italian, the only other substantial work was
Corbaccio
(dated to either 1355 or 1365). Boccaccio revised and rewrote the
Decameron
in 1370–1371. This manuscript has survived to the present day.
From 1350, Boccaccio, although less of a scholar, became closely involved with Italian humanism and also with the Florentine government. His first official mission was to
Romagna
in late 1350. He revisited that city-state twice and also was sent to
Brandenburg
,
Milan
, and
Avignon
. He also pushed for the study of Greek, housing Barlaam of Calabria, and encouraging his tentative translations of works by
Homer
,
Euripides
, and
Aristotle
.
In October 1350, he was delegated to greet Francesco Petrarch as he entered Florence and also to have the great man as a guest at his home during his stay. The meeting between the two was extremely fruitful and they were friends from then on, Boccaccio calling Petrarch his teacher and
magister
. Petrarch at that time encouraged Boccaccio to study classical Greek and Latin literature. They met again in
Padua
in 1351, Boccaccio on an official mission to invite Petrarch to take a chair at the university in Florence. Although unsuccessful, the discussions between the two were instrumental in Boccaccio writing the
Genealogia deorum gentilium
; the first edition was completed in 1360 and this would remain one of the key reference works on classical mythology for over 400 years. It served as an extended defense for the studies of ancient literature and thought. Despite the Pagan beliefs at its core, Boccaccio believed that much could be learned from antiquity. Thus, he challenged the arguments of clerical intellectuals who wanted to limit access to classical sources to prevent any moral harm to Christian readers. In that the revival of classical antiquity became necessary to the achievement of the Renaissance, his defense of the importance of ancient literature was an essential requirement for its development.
[11]
The discussions also formalized Boccaccio's poetic ideas. Certain sources also see a conversion of Boccaccio by Petrarch from the open humanist of the
Decameron
to a more ascetic style, closer to the dominant fourteenth century ethos. For example, he followed Petrarch (and Dante) in the unsuccessful championing of an archaic and deeply allusive form of Latin poetry. In 1359 following a meeting with
Pope Innocent VI
and further meetings with Petrarch it is probable that Boccaccio took some kind of religious mantle. There is a persistent, but unsupported, tale that he repudiated his earlier works, including the
Decameron
, in 1362, as profane.
In 1360, Boccaccio began work on
De mulieribus claris
, a book offering biographies of one hundred and six famous women, that he completed in 1374.
Following the failed coup of 1361, a number of Boccaccio's close friends and other acquaintances were executed or exiled in the subsequent purge. Although not directly linked to the conspiracy, it was in this year that Boccaccio left Florence to reside in Certaldo, and became less involved in government affairs. He did not undertake further missions for Florence until 1365, and traveled to Naples and then on to Padua and
Venice
, where he met up with Petrarch in grand style at
Palazzo Molina
, Petrarch's residence as well as the place of
Petrarch's library
. He later then returned to
Certaldo
. He met Petrarch only once again, in Padua in 1368. Upon hearing of the death of Petrarch (19 July 1374), Boccaccio wrote a commemorative poem, including it in his collection of lyric poems, the
Rime
.
He returned to work for the Florentine government in 1365, undertaking a mission to
Pope Urban V
. When the papacy returned to Rome from
Avignon
in 1367, Boccaccio was again sent to Urban, offering congratulations. He also undertook diplomatic missions to Venice and Naples.
Of his later works the moralistic biographies gathered as
De casibus virorum illustrium
(1355–74) and
De mulieribus claris
(1361–1375) were most significant.
[12]
Other works include a dictionary of geographical allusions in classical literature,
De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis seu paludibus, et de nominibus maris liber
(a title desperate for the coining of the word "geography"). He gave a series of lectures on Dante at the Santo Stefano church in 1373 and these resulted in his final major work, the detailed
Esposizioni sopra la Commedia di Dante
.
[13]
Boccaccio and Petrarch were also two of the most educated people in early Renaissance in the field of
archaeology
.
Boccaccio's change in writing style in the 1350s was not due just to meeting with Petrarch. It was mostly due to poor health and a premature weakening of his physical strength. It also was due to disappointments in love. Some such disappointment could explain why Boccaccio, having previously written always in praise of women and love, came suddenly to write in a bitter
Corbaccio
style. Petrarch describes how Pietro Petrone (a
Carthusian
monk) on his death bed in 1362 sent another Carthusian (Gioacchino Ciani) to urge him to renounce his worldly studies.
[15]
Petrarch then dissuaded Boccaccio from burning his own works and selling off his personal library, letters, books, and manuscripts. Petrarch even offered to purchase Boccaccio's library, so that it would become part of
Petrarch's library
. However, upon Boccaccio's death his entire collection was given to the monastery of
Santo Spirito, in Florence
, where it still resides.
[16]
His final years were troubled by illnesses, some relating to obesity and what often is described as
dropsy
, severe edema that would be described today as
congestive heart failure
. He died at the age of sixty-two on 21 December 1375 in Certaldo, where he is buried.
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