born 1313, Paris, France
died Dec. 21, 1375, Certaldo, Tuscany
Italian poet and scholar.
His life was full of difficulties and occasional bouts of poverty. His early works include The Love Afflicted ( 0441; 1336), a prose work in five books, and The Book of Theseus ( 0441; 1340), an ambitious epic of 12 cantos. He is best known for his Decameron , a masterpiece of classical Italian prose that had an enormous influence on literature throughout Europe. A group of 100 earthy tales united by a frame story, it was probably composed 134853. After this period he turned to humanist scholarship in Latin. With Petrarch , he laid the foundations for Renaissance humanism, and through his writings in Italian he helped raise vernacular literature to the level of the classics of antiquity.
Boccaccio, detail of a fresco by Andrea del Castagno; in the Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia, Florence.
Alinari/Art Resource