Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) (Italian pronunciation: [bokˈkattʃo]) was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of which it has been said that it surpasses in verisimilitude that of j...
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Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) (Italian pronunciation: [bokˈkattʃo]) was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, of which it has been said that it surpasses in verisimilitude that of just about all of his contemporaries, since they were medieval writers and often followed formulaic models for character and plot.
The exact details of his birth are uncertain. A number of sources state that he was born in Paris and that his mother was a Parisian, but others denounce this as a romanticism by the earliest biographers. In this case his birthplace was possibly in Tuscany, perhaps in Certaldo, the town of his father. He was the son of a Florentine merchant and an unknown woman, and almost certainly born illegitimate.
Boccaccio grew...
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