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The Decameron. Giovanni Boccacio Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf Editions. The Decameron. Giovanni Boccacio. Open Contents Purchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at http://collegebookshelf.net Purchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron. http://collegebookshelf.net Sulmona and Giovanni Barrili, and the theologian Dionigi da San Sepolcro. About the author In the 1330s Boccaccio also became a father, two illegitimate children of his were born in this time, Mario and Giulio. Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 In Naples Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation, poetry. - December 21, 1375) was a Florentine Works produced in this period include Filostrato (the source for Chaucer’s author and poet, the greatest of Petrarch’s Troilus and Criseyde), Teseida (ditto the Knight’s Tale), Filocolo a prose version disciples, an important Renaissance hu- of an existing French romance, and La caccia di Diana a poem in octave manist in his own right and author of a rhyme listing Neopolitan women. number of notable works including On Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the plague in that Famous Women, the Decameron and his city of 1340 but also missing the visit of Petrarch to Naples in 1341. He had poems in the vernacular. left Naples due to tensions between the Angevin king and Florence, his The exact details of his birth are uncertain. He was almost certainly a father had returned to Florence in 1338 and bankruptcy and the death of his bastard, the son of a Florentine banker and an unknown woman. An early wife a little later. Although dis-satisfied with his return to Florence Boccaccio biographer claimed his mother was a Parisien and that the city was also the continued to work, producing Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine (also known as place of his birth, this has been largely depreciated as a romanticism and his Ameto) a mix of prose and poems in 1341, completing the fifty canto alle- place of birth is more likely to have been in Tuscany, perhaps in Certaldo, the gorical poem Amorosa visione in 1342, Fiammetta in 1343 and probably the town of his father. pastoral piece Ninfale fiesolano dates from this time. In 1343 time Boccaccio’s Boccaccio grew up in Florence. His father was working for the Compagnia father re-married, to Bice del Bostichi. His children by his first marriage had dei Bardi and in the 1320s married Margherita del Mardoli, of an illustrious all died and he was gladdened by the birth of a son, Iacopo, in 1344. Boccaccio family. It is believed Boccaccio was tutored by Giovanni Mazzuoli and re- also became a father again, another illegitimate child, Violante, was born in ceived from him an early introduction to the works of Dante. Around 1327 Ravenna. Boccaccio moved to Naples when his father was appointed to head the In Florence the overthrow of Walter of Brienne brought about the gov- Neopolitan branch of his bank, Boccaccio was apprenticed to the bank and ernment popolo minuto. It diminished the influence of the nobility and the spent six years there. It was a trade for which he had no affinity and he wealthier merchant classes and assisted in the relative decline of Florence. eventually persuaded his father to let him study law at the Studium in the city. The city was further hurt in 1348 by the Black Death, later used in the However, his father had introduced him into the Neopolitan nobility and the Decameron, which killed maybe three-quarters of the city’s population. From French-influenced court of Robert the Wise. Boccaccio had become a friend 1347 Boccaccio was spending much time in Ravenna, seeking new patron- of fellow-Florentine Nicola Acciaiuoli and benefitted from his influence as age, and despite his claims it is not certain he was actually present in plague- lover of Catherine of Valois, later counsellor to Queen Joanna and the “Grand ravaged Florence. His step-mother died during the epidemic and his father, Seneschal”. as Minister of Supply in the city was closely associated with the government It seems Boccaccio enjoyed law no more than banking but his studies efforts. His father died in 1349 and as head of the family Boccaccio was allowed him the opportunity to study widely and make good contacts with forced into a more active role. fellow scholars. His early influences included Paolo da Perugia (a curator and Boccaccio began work on the Decameron around 1349. It is probable author of a collection of myths, the Collectiones), the humanists Barbato da that the structure of many of the tales dates from earlier in his career, but the Contents Purchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron. http://collegebookshelf.net choice of a hundred tales and the frame-story lieta brigata of three men and ment affairs. He did not undertake further missions for Florence until 1365 seven women dates from this time. The work was largely complete by 1352 and travelled to Naples and then on to Padua and Venice, where he met up and it was Boccaccio’s final effort in literature and one of his last works in with Petrarch in grand style, before returning to Certaldo. He met Petrarch Italian, the only other substantial work was the misogynist Corbaccio (dated only once more, in Padua in 1368. On hearing of the death of Petrarch ( July to either 1355 or 1365). Boccaccio revised and rewrote the Decameron in 19, 1374) Boccaccio wrote a commemorative poem, including it in his 1370-71, this manuscript has survived to the present day. collection of lyric poems, the Rime. From 1350 Boccaccio was less of a scholar, closely involved with Italian As mentioned he returned to work for the Florentine government in humanism and also with the Florentine government. His first official mis- 1365, undertaking a mission to Pope Urban V. When the papacy returned to sion was to Romagna in late 1350, he revisited that city-state twice and was Rome in 1367 Boccaccio was again sent to Urban, offering congratulations. also sent to Brandenburg, Milan and Avignon. He also pushed for the study He also undertook diplomatic missions to Venice and Naples of Greek, housing Barlaam of Calabria and encouraging his tentative trans- Of his later works the moralistic biographies gathered as De casibus lations of works by Homer, Euripides and Aristotle. virorum illustrium (1355-74) and De mulieribus claris (1361-75) were most In October 1350 he was delegated to greet Francesco Petrarca as he significant. Other works include a dictionary of geographical allusions in entered Florence and also have the great man as a guest at his home during classical literature, De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis his stay. The meeting between the two was extremely fruitful and they were seu paludibus et de nominibus maris liber (a title desperate for the coining of friends from then on, Boccaccio calling Petrarch his teacher and magister. the word “geography”). He gave a series of lectures on Dante at the Santo They met again in Padua in 1351, Boccaccio on an official mission to invite Stefano church in 1373 and these resulted in his final major work, the Petrarch to take a chair at the university in Florence. Although unsuccessful detailed Eposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante. the discussions between the two were instrumental in Boccaccio writing His final years were troubled by illnesses, many relating to his great Genealogia deorum gentilium - the first edition was completed in 1360 and obesity, and he died in Certaldo. this would remain one of the key reference works on classical mythology for over 400 years. 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 domi- nant 14th 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 repudi- ated his earlier works, including the Decameron, in 1862 as profane. 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 also was more distant from govern- Contents Purchase the entire Coradella Collegiate Bookshelf on CD at Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron. http://collegebookshelf.net Contents Second Day. Novel 1. - Martellino pretends to be a paralytic, and makes it appear as if he were cured by being placed upon the body of St. Arrigo. His trick is Proem. detected; he is beaten and arrested, and is in peril of hanging, but finally First Day. escapes. Novel 1. - Ser Ciappelletto cheats a holy friar by a false confession, and dies; Novel 2. - Rinaldo d’Asti is robbed, arrives at Castel Guglielmo, and is and, having lived as a very bad man, is, on his death, reputed a saint, and entertained by a widow lady; his property is restored to him, and he called San Ciappelletto. returns home safe and sound. Novel 2. - Abraham, a Jew, at the instance of Jehannot de Chevigny, goes to Novel 3. - Three young men squander their substance and are reduced to the court of Rome, and having marked the evil life of clergy, returns to poverty.
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