Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian Renaissance writer and poet, best known for the Decameron. Boccaccio was one of the earliest authors to work in the vernacular Italian language, as opposed to Latin, and created realistic characters, breaking away from many medieval conventions. He two most famous works are:
- The Decameron
- The Death
Raised in Florence, many details of Boccaccio's early life remain unknown. Boccaccio worked as a banker in Naples for a while, but persuaded his father to let him study law. It was in Naples that he fell in love with the married daughter of the King of Naples, portraying the woman in many of his prose romances under the pseudonym "Fiammetta." Giovanni Boccaccio research papers have been written by literature experts. We can produce a custom written project following your guidelines.
Giovanni Boccaccio and Poetry
It was in Naples that Boccaccio began writing poetry, where he introduced several innovations, including the Sicilian octave, a verse of eight lines of eleven syllables each. The Sicilian octave was an importance influence on Petrarch. In 1341, Boccaccio returned to Florence. The outbreak of the Plague in 1348 served as the inspiration of the Decameron, a collection of stories told by a group of people escaping the Black Death.
Starting in 1350, Boccaccio became a diplomat for Florence, and met Petrarch several times. A failed coup in Florence in 1361 caused Boccaccio to leave until 1365. His later literary work was stylistically much different than his early love poetry, possibly due to age and illness. Tradition holds that Boccaccio repudiated his early writing and attempted to burn his works, only to be dissuaded by Petrarch.