Arve heggem boccaccio biography
Giovanni Boccaccio
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Giovanni Boccaccio ()
Long considered one of the “three crowns” of Italian medieval writers (along with Dante and Petrarch), Giovanni Boccaccio left in his wake stories of all kinds. Born in as an illegitimate child of a merchant, Boccaccio first studied economics and trade in Naples before attempting a legal career.
Arve heggem boccaccio biography wikipedia Profoundly disturbed, Boccaccio thought of destroying his works but was dissuaded by Petrarch, who saw no contradiction between literary activities and the Christian life. This commercial experience was unhappy and was followed by an equally disappointing study of Canon Law. He eventually settled in Certaldo, his father's hometown. He was born the illegitimate child of a merchant of Naples but was later legitimized.When he reached maturity he scorned his father’s wishes and pursued a career in literature. Unlike other authors of the day, Boccaccio strayed from emulating the poetics of Virgil and Homer and turned instead to the prose of Ovid, who was considered a more lowbrow author. An astute reader and noted scholar, Boccaccio famously performed public readings of Dante’s Divine Comedy on the steps of the Badia, the Benedictine Abbey that faces the Bargello, and historians believe his decision to write in vernacular Italian arose from Dante’s efforts to write poetry in the common tongue.
He expanded directly on Dante’s compositions and became close friends with Petrarch despite their conflicting literary topics and styles.
The Decameron, Boccaccio’s best-known work, is a collection of one hundred tales told by ten people over ten days.
Arve heggem boccaccio biography wife Preferred Citation: Cook, Charlotte. Michele e Jacopo. For the first time the octave, a popular Italian verse form, is elevated to the dignity of literary art. Education: Tutored by Giovanni da Strada; studied law,Sequestered in a country palace after the outbreak of plague in , seven women and three men entertain each other by telling instructive and often scandalous stories of love, religion, money, crime, and justice. As the Black Death destroys the city’s everyday rhythms, these elite men and women lampoon Florence’s social norms, politics, and church practices in a space both physically and mentally removed from the city itself.
In writing both female and male narrators into The Decameron, Boccaccio creates a new kind of communal space distinct from normal Florentine contexts. The erotic nature of some of these stories – as well as the number of female narrators in his book – suggests that Boccaccio wrote mainly for a female audience.
Arve heggem boccaccio biography The king of Naples, Robert of Anjou, was eager to establish lines of credit with the major Florentine banking houses. Dombroski, ed. He was born the illegitimate child of a merchant of Naples but was later legitimized. He was a friend of the royal librarian and several other men, one of whom was a close friend of Petrarch's and who introduced Boccaccio to the poet's works.The book became an instant success for its commentary on human life in the face of tragedy. Yet Boccaccio’s parody of longstanding institutions did not go unnoticed. The Index of Prohibited Books, created in as a tool for the Catholic Counter-Reformation, listed The Decameron as one of its forbidden texts, and even into the twentieth century it was known as “The Dirty Stories.”
The Decameron and Boccaccio’s other works serve as some of the most valuable (and candid) primary sources about the average Florentine’s engagement with the city’s various civic, religious, and social spaces.
Scholars, authors, and artists referred not only to ancient sources but also to contemporary texts from Italy and Europe. This mixing of traditions demonstrates a consistent transformation of Florentine writing rather than a linear evolution.
Giovanni boccaccio biography It relates the tale of Fiammetta, who becomes increasingly miserable in contemporary Naples and attempts suicide before comparing her fate to famous women from classical Antiquity. In these final years Boccaccio repudiated the worldliness of his Decameron and even tried to destroy the work's manuscripts. Giorgione Giorgo da Castelfranco; — Poetry Ameto.Boccaccio’s pivotal work provided different ways to read and understand Florence as a medieval city, both through its narrators and its characters.
Boccaccio died in at the age of 62, but not without regrets. In his last years, the writer penned letters to his friend Francesco Petrarch in which he lamented the bawdiness of some of the themes in his Decameron.
Those who have enjoyed his tales since their publication have not shared Boccaccio’s concerns.
Bibliography
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron.
New York: Oxford World’s Classics,
Kirkham, Victoria et al. Boccaccio: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,