Giovanni Boccaccio(1313-1375)
Petrarca - had a profound impact on the most gifted literary men of the early Renaissance
Boccaccio의 생애
born in Paris
the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant and a French woman.
was sent to Naples to learn the profession.
worked for a branch of the Bardi Bank.
tied his hand at studying cannon law.
The collapse of the Bardi bank and the disorders connected with
the Black Death forced his return to Florence to assist his father.
Out of the catastrophe of the Black Death came Boccaccio's
finest literary accomplishment, the Decameron, 100 folk tales
-written in Italian.
- Some of them irreverent and lascivious but told with great elegance style.
- contains the best surviving derivative account of the Black Death.
The tales - medieval style
- extremely popular
- literary fame.
Under the influence of Francesco Petrarca,
he began to write more in Latin and to devote more attention
to classical and religious subjects.
He tried to learn Greek and was instrumental in having a chair in that language
at the University of Florence.
He loved collecting ancient manuscripts.
managed to find texts of the Roman satirist Martial(Marcus Valerius Martialis, 1세기),
the poet Ovid(Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD),
and the historian Tacitus.
Boccaccio's classical studies
-resulted in a Geneology of the Gods
| |_ a manual of ancient geography.
|_ a collection of essays on famous men and women from antiquity.
Concerning Famous Women
|_ treats 106 women from the Old Testament through medieval times.
Although filled with misogynistic(여자를 싫어하는) assumptions, it did a great
deal to make his readers aware of a gender normally forgotten in a period
of male-dominated letters and scholarship.
A biography of Dante and a commentary on his Divine Comedy.
- He blamed that Florence should have ever banished the illustrious Dante
In Praise of Poetry
- Boccaccio's love of poetry, and his inherent sexism is reflected.
