Boccaccio

Author of The Decameron and founder of Italian prose literature.

Life

Son of a merchant

Boccaccio was the son of a Florentine merchant. As a young man he studied commerce and law in Naples, but his passion was literature.

The Decameron

In 1348 the Black Death ravaged Florence, and he used it as the setting for The Decameron: ten young men and women take refuge in a country villa and tell one hundred stories over ten days, mocking the hypocrisy of the clergy and celebrating love and worldly life.

Lectures on Dante

He became a close friend of Petrarch and in his later years devoted himself to the study of Dante, giving public lectures on The Divine Comedy in Florence. He died in 1375.

Legacy

Boccaccio, together with Dante Alighieri and Petrarch, is known as one of the "three crowns" of Italian literature.

Major works & achievements

• The Decameron

Did you know? Dante's Comedy came to be called the "Divine Comedy," reportedly starting with Boccaccio's praise of it.

Key dates

• 1327Goes to Naples (approx.)
• 1348Lives through the Black Death
• 1353The Decameron completed
• 1373Gives public lectures on The Divine Comedy
• 1375Died