What was Giovanni Boccaccio known for?
Giovanni Boccaccio, (born 1313, Paris, Fr. —died Dec. 21, 1375, Certaldo, Tuscany [Italy]), Italian poet and scholar, best remembered as the author of the earthy tales in the Decameron.
Who is Giovanni Boccaccio and why is he important?
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian poet, writer, and scholar. His most famous and influential work is the Decameron, completed by 1353, in which his ten characters present 100 tales of everyday life.
Why did Giovanni Boccaccio Write the Decameron?
That source is the Decameron. The Italian Renaissance author Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decameron in the wake of the plague outbreak in Florence in 1348. The disease ravaged the city, reducing the population by around 60 per cent.
What does Boccaccio mean in English?
a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry)
What impact did Giovanni Boccaccio have?
Besides his writings, Boccaccio was an important figure in the creation of an Italian literary tradition, promoting the poetic importance both of Dante and Petrarch.
What did Giovanni Boccaccio write about the Black Death?
The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio lived through the plague as it ravaged the city of Florence in 1348. The experience inspired him to write The Decameron, a story of seven men and three women who escape the disease by fleeing to a villa outside the city.
Where was Giovanni Boccaccio born and raised?
Boccaccio is born (July or August) in Certaldo or in Florence to an unknown woman and Boccaccino di Chellino, a wealthy merchant who officially and without hesitation recognizes him: an official document, dated November 2, 1360 with which Pope Innocent VI confers to Giovanni, then a Florentine ambassador at his court, the canonicatus,…
What kind of literature did Giovanni Boccaccio write?
Giovanni Boccaccio. He wrote his imaginative literature mostly in the Italian vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot.
When did Giovanni Boccaccio start working on the Decameron?
His stepmother died during the epidemic and his father was closely associated with the government efforts as minister of supply in the city. His father died in 1349 and Boccaccio was forced into a more active role as head of the family. Boccaccio began work on The Decameron around 1349.
Why did Giovanni Boccaccio return to Florence in 1341?
Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the plague of 1340 in that city, 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.