BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI

born 1313, Paris, Fr. died Dec. 21, 1375, Certaldo, Tuscany Boccaccio, detail of a fresco by Andrea del Castagno; in the Cenacolo di Sant' Apollonia, Florence Italian poet and scholar, best remembered as the author of the earthy tales in the Decameron. With Petrarch he laid the foundations for the humanism of the Renaissance and raised vernacular literature to the level and status of the classics of antiquity. Additional reading Edward Hutton, G. Boccaccio: A Biographical Study (1910), is still recommended. Other studies of Boccaccio and his works include Francis MacManus, Boccaccio (1947); Vittore Branca, Boccaccio (1976); and Thomas G. Bergin, Boccaccio (1981), which includes a detailed summary of each work as well as discussion of style, themes, and structure. On Boccaccio's language and style, Gordon Rutledge Silber, The Influence of Dante and Petrarch on Certain of Boccaccio's Lyrics (1940), is useful. Giuseppe Mazzotta, The World at Play in Boccaccio's Decameron (1986), examines the most famous of Boccaccio's works.