servants and forced to follow the seneschal, Niccolò
Acciaiuoli, around in his constant travels, making study
impossible; as a fi nal insult, he had even been left behind
by the entourage. After a consoling visit with Petrarch
in Venice, Boccaccio returned to Certaldo bitterly con-
fi rmed in his preference for impoverished independence.
His public duties for Florence resumed in 1365.
Besides Boccaccio’s prose and verse narratives, 126
of his securely attributed lyric poems remain. They
were written throughout his life on such topics as love,
religion, and poetry and were never assembled into any
fi xed collection. (Nearly fi fty poems less surely attrib-
uted to him have also been published.) The infl uence
of Ovid, the stilnovisti, and Petrarch is recognizable in
many of Boccaccio’s verses. Around 1370, Boccaccio
circulated his completed Carmen buccolicum: sixteen
diverse Latin eclogues on amatory, political, moral, lit-
erary, and religious matters. Three of the later eclogues
present a hell, paradise, and purgatory clearly inspired
by Dante’s. Boccaccio also copied together into one
manuscript the eclogues of Virgil, Petrarch, Dante,
Giovanni del Virgilio, Checco di Meletto de’ Rossi, and
his own; this anthology of pastoral verse contributed to
the subsequent popularity of the genre.
In 1373, Boccaccio was invited to give the fi rst public
lectures in Florence on Dante’s Commedia. These lec-
tures were interrupted by his illness during the following
year; moreover, Boccaccio expressed his concern, in
several sonnets (122–125), that he might be prostituting
the muses by exposing Dante’s poetry to the crowds. His
written Esposizioni (Commentaries), divided into literal
and allegorical explanations, break off at Inferno 17. In
the midst of his own illness, Boccaccio received news of
Petrarch’s death (July 1374), and he mourned Petrarch
in Italian verse. Near the end of Boccaccio’s life, one of
his most devoted friends was Coluccio Salutari, who was
to be important to the next generation of humanists. On
21 December 1375, Boccaccio died at Certaldo, leaving
his books to the Augustinians of Santo Spirito. He had
composed his own epitaph:
Beneath this stone lie the ashes and bones of Giovanni;
His spirit sits before God adorned with the merits of the
labors
Of his mortal life. His father was Boccaccio,
His home Certaldo, his eager study was nourishing poetry.See also Chaucer, Geoffrey; Cino da Pistoia;
Dante Alighieri; Petrarca, Francesco
Further Reading
Editions of Boccacio’s Works
Amorosa visione, ed. Vittore Branca. Tutte le opere, Vol. 3. Ve-
rona: Mondadori, 1974.
Caccia di Diana, ed. Vittore Branca. Tutte le Opere, Vol. 1.
Verona: Mondadori, 1967.
Carmina, ed. Giuseppe Velli. Tutte le opere, Vol. 5, t. 1. Milan:
Mondadori, 1992.
Comedia delle ninfe Fiorentine, ed. Antonio Enzo Quaglio. Tutte
le opere, Vol. 2. Verona: Mondadori, 1964.
Corbaccio, ed. Tauno Nurmela. Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian
Toimituksia: Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae,
Series B, 146. Helsinki, 1968.
Decameron, ed. Vittore Branca. Tutte le opere, Vol. 4. Verona:
Mondadori, 1976.
De Canaria, ed. Manlio Pastore Stocchi. Tutte le opere, Vol. 5,
t. 1. Milan: Mondadori, 1992.
De mulieribus Claris, ed. Vittorio Zaccaria. Tutte le opere, Vol.- Verona: Mondadori, 1970. Elegia di madonna Fiammetta,
ed. Cesare Segre. In Opere di Giovanni Boccaccio. Milan:
Mursia, 1963.
Epistole e lettere, ed. Ginetta Auzzas. Tutte le opere, Vol. 5, t. 1.
Milan: Mondadori, 1992.
Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante, ed. Giorgio Padoan. Tutte
le opere, Vol. 6. Verona: Mondadori, 1965.
Filocolo, ed. Antonio Enzo Quaglio. Tutte le opere, Vol. 1. Verona:
Mondadori, 1967.
Filostrato, ed. Vittore Branca. Tutte le opere, Vol. 2. Verona:
Mondadori, 1964.
Genealogie deorum gentilium libri, 2 vols., ed. Vincenzo Romano.
Bari: Laterza, 1951.
Lettere edite e inedite, ed. Francesco Corazzini. Florence,
Ninfale fi esolano, ed. Armando Balduino. Tutte le opere, Vol. 3.
Verona: Mondadori, 1974.
Opere Latine minori, ed. Aldo Francesco Massèra. Bari: Laterza,
Rime, ed. Vittore Branca. Tutte le opere, Vol. 5, t. 1. Milan:
Mondadori, 1992.
Teseida delle nozze di Emilia, ed. Alberto Limentani. Tutte le
opere, Vol. 2. Verona: Mondadori, 1964.
Trattatello in laude di Dante, ed. Pier Giorgio Ricci. Tutte le
opere, Vol. 3. Verona: Mondadori, 1974.
Vite, ed. Renata Fabbri. Tutte le opere, Vol. 5, t. 1. Milan: Mon-
dadori, 1992.
Translations of Boccaccio’s Works (by Work)
L’Ameto, trans. Judith Serafini-Sauli. New York: Garland,
Amorosa visione, trans. Robert Hollander, Timothy Hampton, and
Margherita Frankel. Hanover, N.H., and London: University
Press of New England, 1986.
Amorous Fiammetta (Elegia di madonna Fiammetta), trans.
Bartholomew Young. London, 1587. (Rev. ed., Edward Hut-
ton, London, 1926. Reprint, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood,
1970.)
Boccaccio on Poetry, trans. Charles Osgood. Indianapolis, Ind.:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1930. (Genealogie, books 14 and 15.)
The Book of Theseus (Teseida), trans. Bernadette McCoy. New
York: Medieval Text Association, 1974.
Concerning Famous Women, trans. Guido Guarino. New Bruns-
wick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1963.
The Corbaccio, trans. Anthony K. Cassell. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1975. (2nd ed. rev., Binghamton: Medieval
and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1993.)
Decameron, trans. G. H. McWilliam. Harmondsworth: Penguin,
- (2nd ed., 1995.)
Decameron, trans. Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella. New York:
Norton, 1982.
BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI