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Boccaccio 1313 - 1375 (62)

Heaven would indeed be heaven if lovers were there permitted as much enjoyment as they had experienced on earth.


QUOTES

Decameron

"A kindly thing it is to have compassion of the afflicted and albeit it well beseemeth every one, yet of those is it more particularly required who have erst had need of comfort and have found it in any, amongst whom, if ever any had need thereof or held it dear or took pleasure therein aforetimes, certes, I am one of these".

Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 - December 21, 1375), was an Italian poet and author of a large number of works, most notably Decameron. Boccaccio was born in Florence and was the illegitimate son of Boccaccio di Chellino, a wealthy merchant, and an unknown girl. His father recognized him and took him to Naples, he wanted to make him a merchant but he did not succeed, as Giovanni was a dreamer and preferred to make lyrics and stories. From 1334 he began to publish his works and in an economic crisis in 1340, he was forced to return to Florence, where in 1350 he met Petrarch. He became his student; that time he finished Decameron. He spent his life writing and died after a long illness 21 December 1375.

Unlike other writers ofhis time, who wrote about Knights and heroic deeds, Boccaccio wrote with great realism about everyday people. The Ten Days consists of 100 short stories divided into 10 parts, which describe a multitude of characters with their loves, passions, envy, cunning, hopes and fears in those dark times of the Middle Ages. The prologue makes extensive reference to the plague that killed much of the population in 1348.