2. Boccaccio was an Italian novelist, humanist and one of the founders of the Renaissance. Born in Paris during the period of the Early Renaissance in 1313-December 21, 1375 to a merchant. He moved to Florence as a young child for school up until the age of ten, when he was taken into business by his father, which he later gave up on to pursue literature. In 1324, he was the student of Giovanni da Strada –a well respected teacher of grammar in Florence. In 1336, he met Maria d’Aquino in Naples –who was to become the inspiration of his earlier works. She was married but began an affair with Boccaccio. After her death, Boccaccio returned to Florence, avoiding the plague which he wrote about in his famous novel Decameron. Boccaccio held certain public offices in Florence and was entrusted with diplomatic missions to Padua, Romagna, Avignon, and elsewhere in 1348. In 1350 Boccaccio befriended Francesco Petrarch who was an important influence on him in terms of the Renaissance and the concept of Humanism. Biography
3. In 1337, Boccaccio wrote Filocolo, a romance novel containing pagan myths and Christian legends. In 1339. Boccaccio wrote his book Ameto, telling the love adventures and sad story of his mother’s life. In 1341, he wrote Teseide his first artistic work in “ottava rima” (a rhyming stanza poem of Italian origin) In 1344, he wrote La Fimmeta, the most original and personal of his work, the main character Panfilo was supposed to represent Boccaccio, In 1350, Boccaccio wrote his most famous work called The Decameron which was a collection of over one hundred prose tales In 1355, he wrote the Life of Dante, with Pietro Arctino. The Decameron heavily influenced European, French and English Literature., even Shakespeare borrowed from it. Major Achievements
4. Boccaccio had a major impact on realism, in terms of literary characterization and setting He caused people to view a realistic version of life and his characters were mainly people who were witty and down to earth and faced average issues rather than the traditional “larger than life” tribulations so the common man could enjoy the tales, this still continues in our society today. Boccaccio founded this new way of writing about settings and characters and this form of realism is recognizable in today’s world of both literary and commercial fiction. Before the Renaissance, writers generally tended to focus on issues of a religions nature , with pious Christian heroes. Boccaccio broke that tradition in his writings. Impact on Present and Future
