Giovanni Boccaccio
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 December 2010
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 December 2010
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0007
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 December 2010
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 December 2010
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0007
Introduction
Giovanni Boccaccio (b. 1313–d. 1375) is generally considered the father of Italian prose because of his masterpiece, the Decameron, which had a major shaping effect on the development of the frame-tale narrative both in Italy and in the rest of Europe in subsequent centuries. Together with Dante and Petrarch, he is one of the “Three Crowns” of Florence, for these authors essentially began the Italian literary tradition and set the standards of style in poetry and prose for centuries to come. Among Boccaccio’s other prose works in Italian are L’elegia di madonna Fiammetta, often called the first psychological novel, and Il filocolo, a prose romance. He also made major contributions in the areas of narrative poetry (for example, Filostrato, Teseida, and Amorosa visione), Latin treatises (for example, De casibus virorum illustrium, De claris mulieribus, and Genealogia deorum gentiliumlibri), and poetry (Egloghe). Among his other works are numerous lyric poems (Rime); a prosimetrum (L’ameto); a pastoral in terza rima (La caccia di Diana); an enigmatic, apparently misogynist work in prose (Il corbaccio); a biography of Dante (Trattatello in laude di Dante); and a major commentary on the Inferno (Esposizioni sopra la Comedia), which resulted from his public lectures on Dante in Florence. The one hundred tales in the Decameron were a major source of themes and plots for subsequent authors of short stories, novels, and plays. Because of their elegant classicizing style and lexical richness, Boccaccio’s tales also served as models of excellence in Italian prose for centuries.
General Overviews
There is no shortage of books and articles about Giovanni Boccaccio—his life and works—and the age in which he lived. Some of the volumes listed here (for example, Bergin 1981) follow the standard practice of presenting the life of the author and his times followed by synopses of his works, one by one, with some critical commentary. Other studies depart from this formula, preferring a more synthetic presentation of the material (for example, Serafini-Sauli 1982, Battaglia Ricci 2000, Surdich 2001). Grabher 1945 provides an engaging introduction to Boccaccio within the larger medieval context. Muscetta 1989 presents a concise overview of Boccaccio’s life and then selections from his works to demonstrate their particular significance. Bruni 1990 offers an overview of all of Boccaccio’s works with regard to the different major themes that emerge in his early and late literary works. Smarr 1986 presents Boccaccio’s works with regard to the changing roles of one of his principal protagonists, Fiammetta.
Battaglia Ricci, Lucia. Boccaccio. Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2000.
A general account of Boccaccio’s life and works, with a bibliography and indices. About half the book is devoted to the Decameron.
Bergin, Thomas G. Boccaccio. New York: Viking, 1981.
A thorough presentation of Boccaccio’s life and works with notes, a bibliography, and index.
Bruni, Francesco. Boccaccio: L’invenzione della letteratura mezzana. Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino, 1990.
An attentive examination of the entire literary production of Boccaccio, divided into two distinct phases: the younger works concerned with love and entertainment and directed toward a more popular audience and the later ones composed on the basis of higher philosophical themes for a more elite public.
Grabher, Carlo. Boccaccio. Turin, Italy: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1945.
A readable biography of the writer followed by presentations of each of his works.
Muscetta, Carlo. Giovanni Boccaccio. 3d ed. Bari, Italy: Laterza, 1989.
Provides a detailed overview of Boccaccio’s life and works, with representative selections from his poetic and prose works in Italian and Latin and a bibliography.
Serafini-Sauli, Judith Powers. Giovanni Boccaccio. Boston: Twayne, 1982.
An adequate overview of Boccaccio’s life and works with notes, a bibliography, and an index.
Smarr, Janet Levarie. Boccaccio and Fiammetta: The Narrator as Lover. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
An in-depth study of Boccaccio’s works with particular attention to the changing roles of the figure of Fiammetta, to the presentation of the narrator as a lover, to the function of readers and narrators in the text, and to the development of Boccaccio’s methods as a writer.
Surdich, Luigi. Boccaccio. Rome: Laterza, 2001.
A synthetic presentation of the life and works of Boccaccio with a bibliography and indices.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Alcuin of York
- Alexander the Great
- Alfonso X
- Alfred the Great
- Alighieri, Dante
- Ancrene Wisse
- Angevin Dynasty
- Anglo-Norman Realm
- Anglo-Saxon Art
- Anglo-Saxon Law
- Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
- Anglo-Saxon Metalwork
- Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
- Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism
- Archaeology of Southampton
- Armenian Art
- Art and Pilgrimage
- Art in Italy
- Art in the Visigothic Period
- Art of East Anglia
- Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Mon...
- Arthurian Romance
- Attila And The Huns
- Auchinleck Manuscript, The
- Audelay, John
- Augustodunensis, Honorius
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus
- Benedictines After 1100
- Benoît de Sainte Maure [113]
- Beowulf
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bernardus Silvestris
- Biblical Apocrypha
- Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Boethius
- Bokenham, Osbern
- Book of Durrow
- Book of Kells
- Bozon, Nicholas
- Byzantine Art
- Byzantine Empire, Eunuchs in the
- Byzantine Empire, Rural Landscapes, Rural Communities, and...
- Byzantine Empire, Women in the
- Byzantine Manuscript Illumination
- Byzantine Monasticism
- Byzantine Science
- Calendars and Time (Christian)
- Cambridge Songs
- Canon Law
- Capgrave, John
- Carolingian Architecture
- Carolingian Era
- Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
- Carolingian Metalwork
- Carthusians and Eremitic Orders
- Cecco d’Ascoli (Francesco Stabili)
- Charlemagne
- Charles d’Orléans
- Charters of the British Isles
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Childhood
- Christian Mysticism
- Christianity and the Church in Post-Conquest England
- Christianity and the Church in Pre-Conquest England
- Christina of Markyate
- Chronicles (East Norse, Rhymed Chronicles)
- Chronicles of England and the British Isles
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The
- Cistercian Architecture
- Cistercians, The
- Clanvowe, John
- Classics in the Middle Ages
- Cloud of Unknowing and Related Texts, The
- Coins
- Constantinople and Byzantine Cities
- Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)
- Coptic Art
- Corpus Christi
- Councils and Synods of the Medieval Church
- Crusades, The
- Crusading Warfare
- Cynewulf
- da Barberino, Francesco
- da Lentini, Giacomo
- da Tempo, Antonio and da Sommacampagna, Gidino
- da Todi, Iacopone
- Dance
- Dance of Death
- d’Arezzo, Ristoro
- de la Sale, Antoine
- de’ Rossi, Nicolò
- de Santa Maria, Cantigas
- Death and Dying in England
- Decorative Arts
- delle Vigne, Pier
- Drama in Britain
- Dress
- Dutch Theater and Drama
- Early Italian Humanists
- Economic History
- Eddic Poetry
- El Cid
- England, Pre-Conquest
- England, Towns and Cities Medieval
- English Prosody
- Exeter Book, The
- Falconry
- Family Letters in 15th Century England
- Family Life in the Middle Ages
- Feast of Fools
- Female Monasticism to 1100
- Feudalism
- Findern Manuscript (CUL Ff.i.6), The
- Florence
- Folk Custom and Entertainment
- Food, Drink, and Diet
- Fornaldarsögur
- France
- French Drama
- French Monarchy, The
- French of England, The
- Friars
- Froissart, Jean
- Games and Recreations
- Gawain Poet, The
- German Drama
- Gerson, Jean
- Glass, Stained
- Gothic Art
- Gower, John
- Gregory VII
- Guilds
- Hagiography in the Byzantine Empire
- Handbooks for Confessors
- Hardyng, John
- Harley 2253 Manuscript, The
- Hiberno-Latin Literature
- High Crosses
- Hilton, Walter
- Historical Literature (Íslendingabók, Landnámabók)
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Hood, Robin
- Hospitals in the Middle Ages
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary
- Hungary, Latin Literacy in Medieval
- Hungary, Libraries in Medieval
- Hymns
- Icons
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Illustrated Beatus Manuscripts
- Insular Art
- Insular Manuscript Illumination
- Islamic Architecture (622–1500)
- Italian Cantari
- Italian Chronicles
- Italian Drama
- Italian Mural Decoration
- Italian Novella, The
- Italian Religious Writers of the Trecento
- Italian Rhetoricians
- Jewish Manuscript Illumination
- Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- Julian of Norwich
- Junius Manuscript, The
- King Arthur
- Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485, English
- Kings’ Sagas
- Knapwell, Richard
- Kraków
- Lancelot-Grail Cycle
- Late Medieval Preaching
- Latin and Vernacular Song in Medieval Italy
- Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose, Medieval
- Latino, Brunetto
- Learned and Scientific Literature
- Ælfric
- Libraries in England and Wales
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Liturgical Drama
- Liturgical Processions
- Liturgy
- Lollards and John Wyclif, The
- Lombards in Italy
- London, Medieval
- Love, Nicholas
- Low Countries
- Lydgate, John
- Machaut, Guillaume de
- Magic in the Medieval Theater
- Maidstone, Richard
- Malmesbury, Aldhelm of
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Manuscript Illumination, Ottonian
- Marie de France
- Markets and Fairs
- Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages
- Medicine
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuri...
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Twelfth to Fifteenth Cent...
- Medieval Bologna
- Medieval Chant for the Mass Ordinary
- Medieval English Universities
- Medieval Ivories
- Medieval Latin Commentaries on Classical Myth
- Medieval Music Theory
- Medieval Naples
- Medieval Optics
- Melusine
- Mendicant Orders and Late Medieval Art Patronage in Italy
- Middle English Language
- Middle English Lyric
- Mirk, John
- Mosaics in Italy
- Mozarabic Art
- Music and Liturgy for the Cult of Saints
- Music in Medieval Towns and Cities
- Music of the Troubadours and Trouvères
- Musical Instruments
- Necromancy, Theurgy, and Intermediary Beings
- Nibelungenlied, The
- Nicholas of Cusa
- Nordic Laws
- Norman (and Anglo-Norman) Manuscript Ilumination
- N-Town Plays
- Nuns and Abbesses
- Old English Hexateuch, The Illustrated
- Old English Language
- Old English Literature and Critical Theory
- Old English Religious Poetry
- Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas
- Ottonian Art
- Ovid in the Middle Ages
- Ovide moralisé, The
- Owl and the Nightingale, The
- Papacy, The Medieval
- Paris
- Peasants
- Persianate Dynastic Period/Later Caliphate (c. 800–1000)
- Peter Abelard
- Petrarch
- Philosophy in the Eastern Roman Empire
- Pictish Art
- Pizan, Christine de
- Plowman, Piers
- Poland
- Poland, Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval
- Pope Innocent III
- Post-Conquest England
- Pre-Carolingian Western European Kingdoms
- Prick of Conscience, The
- Pucci, Antonio
- Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages
- Queens
- Rate Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61)
- Regions of Medieval France
- Regular Canons
- Religious Instruction (Homilies, Sermons, etc.)
- Religious Lyrics
- Rímur
- Robert Mannyng of Brunne
- Rolle, Richard
- Roman Law
- Romances (East and West Norse)
- Romanesque Art
- Rus in Medieval Europe
- Ruthwell Cross
- Sagas and Tales of Icelanders
- Saint Plays and Miracles
- Saint-Denis
- Saints’ Lives
- Scandinavian Migration-Period Gold Bracteates
- Schools in Medieval Britain
- Scogan, Henry
- Seals
- Sermons
- Sex and Sexuality
- Ships and Seafaring
- Shirley, John
- Skaldic Poetry
- Slavery in Medieval Europe
- Snorra Edda
- Song of Roland, The
- Songs, Medieval
- Spain
- St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
- St. Peter's in the Vatican (Rome)
- Syria and Palestine in the Byzantine Empire
- Textiles
- The Middle Ages, The Trojan War in
- The Notre Dame School and the Music of the Magnus liber or...
- The Use of Sarum and Other Liturgical Uses in Later Mediev...
- Theater and Performance, Iberian
- Thirteenth-Century Motets in France
- Thomas Aquinas
- Thomism
- Thornton, Robert
- Tomb Sculpture
- Travel and Travelers
- Trevisa, John
- Tropes
- Troubadours and Trouvères
- Troyes, Chrétien de
- Umayyad History
- Usk, Adam
- Usk, Thomas
- Venerable Bede, The
- Vercelli Book, The
- Vernon Manuscript, The
- Vikings
- Von Eschenbach, Wolfram
- Wace
- Wall Painting in Europe
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Welsh Literature
- William of Ockham
- Witchcraft
- Women's Life Cycles
- Wulfstan
- York Corpus Christi Plays
- York, Medieval