Born 1313 in Paris; died Dec. 21, 1375, in Certaldo, near Florence. Italian writer.

Boccaccio was one of the first humanistic writers of the Renaissance. He began writing in the tradition of chivalric literature, which attracted him because of its secular motifs and its use of themes from classical literature, a literature close to Boccaccio in its earthly humanistic spirit. The narrative poem Filostrato (1338, published in 1498), the novel Filocolo (begun in 1336, published in 1472), and the narrative poem Teseida (1339, published in 1475) deal with episodes from classical mythology, but their most important characteristic is the description of psychological experiences. Boccaccio’s closeness to Dante became apparent in the pastoral L’Ameto (1341, published in 1478) and especially in the narrative poem Vision of Love (1342, published in 1521). In the narrative poem The Nymphs of Fiesole (1345, published in 1477), which was inspired by The Metamorphoses of Ovid, contemporary reality shines through the images of classical mythology. The idea of the narrative poem is a defense of man’s right to earthly love. In the novella Fiammetta (1343, published in 1472), Boccaccio describes real people, his contemporaries. In this novella he reveals a woman’s inner world and in so doing anticipates the European psychological novel.

Boccaccio’s best work was the Decameron (1350–53, published in 1471), a collection of realistic short stories united by their common humanistic and Renaissance spirit and constituting an artistic whole. Boccaccio tells of seven young women and three young men who have retreated to a villa in the country during the plague which raged in Florence in 1348. For ten days they tell each other stories, and it is this which gives the work its name. (“Decameron” is Greek for a ten-day diary.) One of the book’s major themes is criticism of the Catholic Church and satiric mockery of the clergy—the monks and the papal court. Boccaccio rejects the asceticism of the Middle Ages and defends the right of human beings to enjoy life on earth. He glorifies sensual love and man’s natural drives. The Decameron gives a broad and realistic picture of life in Italy during the period of the trecento. In coming out against feudal privileges and class inequality Boccaccio developed the idea that human nobility should be measured by deeds, not by birth. The book is imbued with the spirit of freethinking and cheerful humor. As the successor to Dante and Petrarch, he continued the development of a national Italian literature written in the vernacular. He himself used the Florentine dialect.

Boccaccio later experienced a crisis concerning his humanistic ideals, a crisis which was reflected in The Raven (1354–55, published in 1487), a narrative poem written in the form of a vision, in which he satirized women. He wrote commentaries on 17 songs from Dante’s Divine Comedy and was the first to write his biography, The Life of Dante Alighieri (c. 1360, published 1477). Boccaccio was also the author of the treatises in Latin The Genealogy of the Gentile Gods, About Famous Women, and The Lives of Great People.