Boccaccio, Giovanni, << boh KAH chee `oh` or boh KAH choh, joh VAHN nee >> (1313?-1375), is generally considered the first great writer of prose in a modern language. Other major writers of his time, such as Geoffrey Chaucer of England and Petrarch and Dante of Italy, wrote their masterpieces in verse. Boccaccio’s narrative poems and prose romances influenced Chaucer.
Boccaccio is best known for his masterpiece, the Decameron (about 1349-1353). The work consists of 100 stories masterfully organized to give the impression of a total view of society. In the introduction, three young men and seven young women flee to the country to escape an outbreak of the plague in Florence in 1348. They spend two weeks there and hold storytelling sessions during the hot afternoons. Each day the group elects a queen or king who determines the general theme of the stories for the following day.
The word Decameron is based on the Greek words for 10 days. The 100 stories, distributed over 10 days, are arranged in a progression of themes. The themes are designed to illustrate the interplay of the forces of love, fortune, and human intelligence.
Boccaccio is also credited with initiating several literary forms that later became popular in Italian literature. For example, his Filocolo is the first Italian prose romance. Filostrato is the first Italian romance in verse other than those written by minstrels. He also wrote Ninfale Fiesolano, the first Italian idyll (poem about country life).
Boccaccio was the son of an Italian merchant. He was probably born in Certaldo, near Florence, Italy, but he spent most of his life in Naples and Florence. Boccaccio greatly admired Dante and Petrarch. He wrote many poems and prose works in Latin and in Italian, as they did. Most of his Italian works were written in the 1330’s and 1340’s. Discouraged by public objection to some portions of the Decameron as obscene, Boccaccio devoted his later years to writing highly scholarly works in Latin. He also gave public lectures on Dante. He died on Dec. 21, 1375.
