Boccaccio, Giovanni 1313-75
Italian writer

Born in Tuscany or Paris, he abandoned commerce and the study of canon law, and in Naples (1328) he turned to story-writing in verse and prose. Until 1350 he lived alternately in Florence and Naples, producing prose tales, pastorals and poems. The Teseide ('Book of Theseus') is a graceful version in ottava rima of the medieval romance of Palamon and Arcite, which was partly translated by Chaucer in the Knight's Tale. The Filostrato, also in ottava rima, deals with the loves of Troilus and Cressida, also in great part translated by Chaucer. After 1350 he became a diplomat and a scholar, formed a lasting friendship with Petrarch, and visited Rome, Ravenna, Avignon and Brandenburg as Florentine ambassador. In 1358 he completed his major work, the Decameron, begun some 10 years before, with medieval subject matter and classical form. For some time he held a chair founded to expound the works of Dante, and produced a commentary on the Divina Commedia. He wrote in Latin an elaborate work on mythology, De genealogia deorum gentilium ('The Genealogies of the Gentile Gods'), and treatises, for example De claris mulieribus ('Famous Women') and De Montibus ('On Mountains').

Bibliography: V Branca, Boccaccio: the man and his works (1976)