Editing Giovanni Boccaccio (section)

===Adult years===
[[File:Boccaccio01.jpg|thumb|upright|1845 statue of Boccaccio by [[Cesare Fantacchiotti|Fantacchiotti]] in [[Uffizi Gallery]]]]

In Naples, Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation of poetry. Works produced in this period include ''[[Il Filostrato]]'' and ''[[Teseida]]'' (the sources for [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' and ''[[The Knight's Tale]]'', respectively), ''[[The Filocolo]]'' (a prose version of an existing French romance), and ''La caccia di Diana'' (a poem in ''[[terza rima]]'' listing Neapolitan women).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/the_project/|title=Complete list of Boccaccio works at Decameron|access-date=5 October 2014}}</ref> The period featured considerable formal innovation, including possibly the introduction of the [[Sicilian octave]], where it influenced [[Petrarch]].

Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the [[Bubonic plague|plague]] of 1340 in that city, but also missing the visit of Petrarch to Naples in 1341. He had left Naples due to tensions between the Angevin king and Florence. His father had returned to Florence in 1338, where he had gone bankrupt. His mother possibly died shortly afterwards.{{cn|date=September 2024}} Boccaccio continued to work, although dissatisfied with his return to Florence, producing ''Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine'' in 1341 (also known as ''Ameto''), a mix of prose and poems, completing the fifty-[[canto]] allegorical poem ''Amorosa visione'' in 1342, and ''[[Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta|Fiammetta]]''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10006 |title=Boccaccio, Giovanni ''La Fiammetta'' (1342), Project Gutenberg |via=Project Gutenberg|date=1 November 2003 |access-date=17 February 2010}}</ref> in 1343. The pastoral piece "Ninfale fiesolano" probably dates from this time, also. In 1343, Boccaccio's father remarried Bice del Bostichi. The other children by his first marriage had all died, but he had another son named Iacopo in 1344.

[[File:Giovanni Boccaccio and Florentines who have fled from the plague.jpg|thumb|left|Boccaccio and others fleeing the plague; illumination of a French edition of the [[The Decameron|Decamerone]] (c. 1485)]]

In Florence, the overthrow of [[Walter VI, Count of Brienne|Walter of Brienne]] brought about the government of ''popolo minuto'' ("small people", workers). It diminished the influence of the nobility and the wealthier merchant classes and contributed to the relative decline of Florence. The city was hurt further in 1348 by the [[Black Death]], which killed some three-quarters of the city's population and was later represented in Boccaccio's work ''[[The Decameron]]''.

From 1347, Boccaccio spent much time in Ravenna, seeking new patronage and, despite his claims, it is not certain whether he was present in plague-ravaged Florence. His stepmother died during the epidemic and his father was closely associated with the government efforts as minister of supply in the city. His father died in 1349 and Boccaccio was forced into a more active role as head of the family.

Boccaccio began work on ''[[The Decameron]]''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3726 |title=Boccaccio, Giovanni ''The Decameron'', Volume I, Project Gutenberg |via=Project Gutenberg|date=1 February 2003 |access-date=17 February 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13102 |title=Boccaccio, Giovanni ''The Decameron'', Volume II, Project Gutenberg |via=Project Gutenberg|date=3 August 2004 |access-date=17 February 2010}}</ref> around 1349. It is probable that the structures of many of the tales date from earlier in his career, but the choice of a hundred tales and the frame-story ''lieta brigata'' of three men and seven women dates from this time. The work was largely complete by 1352. It was Boccaccio's final effort in literature and one of his last works in Tuscan vernacular; the only other substantial work was ''[[Corbaccio]]'' (dated to either 1355 or 1365). Boccaccio revised and rewrote ''The Decameron'' in 1370–1371. This manuscript has survived to the present day.

From 1350, Boccaccio became closely involved with Italian humanism (although less of a scholar) and also with the Florentine government. His first official mission was to [[Romagna]] in late 1350. He revisited that city-state twice and also was sent to [[Brandenburg]], Milan and [[Avignon]]. He also pushed for the study of Greek, housing [[Leontius Pilatus]], and encouraging his tentative translations of works by [[Homer]], [[Euripides]], and [[Aristotle]]. In these years, he also took [[minor orders]].<ref>{{cite web | title= Encyclopedia of medieval literature – Boccaccio, Giovanni | url= http://medieval_literature.enacademic.com/80/Boccaccio,_Giovanni | access-date= 4 December 2013 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130625193909/http://medieval_literature.enacademic.com/80/Boccaccio%2C_Giovanni | archive-date= 25 June 2013 | url-status= dead }}</ref>

In October 1350, he was delegated to greet Francesco Petrarch as he entered Florence and also to have Petrarch as a guest at Boccaccio's home, during his stay. The meeting between the two was extremely fruitful and they were friends from then on, Boccaccio calling Petrarch his teacher and ''magister''. Petrarch at that time encouraged Boccaccio to study classical Greek and Latin literature. They met again in [[Padua]] in 1351, Boccaccio on an official mission to invite Petrarch to take a chair at the university in Florence. Although unsuccessful, the discussions between the two were instrumental in Boccaccio writing the ''[[Genealogia deorum gentilium]]''; the first edition was completed in 1360 and this remained one of the key reference works on classical mythology for over 400 years. It served as an extended defence for the studies of ancient literature and thought. Despite the Pagan beliefs at its core, Boccaccio believed that much could be learned from antiquity. Thus, he challenged the arguments of clerical intellectuals who wanted to limit access to classical sources to prevent any moral harm to Christian readers. The revival of classical antiquity became a foundation of the Renaissance, and his defence of the importance of ancient literature was an essential requirement for its development.<ref>[[Margaret L. King|King, Margaret L.]] "The Renaissance in Europe". Laurence King Publishing, 2003, p.54.</ref> The discussions also formalized Boccaccio's poetic ideas. Certain sources also see a conversion of Boccaccio by Petrarch from the open humanist of the ''Decameron'' to a more ascetic style, closer to the dominant fourteenth-century ethos. For example, he followed Petrarch (and Dante) in the unsuccessful championing of an archaic and deeply allusive form of Latin poetry. In 1359, following a meeting with [[Pope Innocent VI]] and further meetings with Petrarch, it is probable that Boccaccio took some kind of religious mantle. There is a persistent (but unsupported) tale that he repudiated his earlier works as profane in 1362, including ''The Decameron''.

[[File:De claris mulieribus.jpg|thumb|[[Circe]]s: illustration of one of the women featured in the 1374 biographies of 106 famous women, ''De Claris Mulieribus'', by Boccaccio – from a German translation of 1541]]
In 1360, Boccaccio began work on ''[[De mulieribus claris]] ("On famous women")'', a book offering biographies of 106 famous women, that he completed in 1374.

A number of Boccaccio's close friends and other acquaintances were executed or exiled in the purge following the failed coup of 1361;{{Explain|date=September 2024}} although not directly linked to the conspiracy, in that year Boccaccio left Florence to reside in [[Certaldo]], where he became less involved in government affairs. He did not undertake further missions for Florence until 1365, and travelled to Naples and then on to Padua and [[Venice]], where he met up with Petrarch in grand style at [[Palazzo Molina, Venice|Palazzo Molina]], Petrarch's residence as well as the location of [[Petrarch's library]]. Boccaccio later returned to Certaldo; he met Petrarch only one more time, in 1368, again in Padua. Upon hearing of the death of Petrarch (19 July 1374), he wrote a commemorative poem, including it in his collection of lyric poems, the ''Rime''.

He returned to work for the Florentine government in 1365, undertaking a mission to [[Pope Urban V]]. The papacy returned to Rome from [[Avignon]] in 1367, and Boccaccio was again sent to Urban, offering congratulations. He also undertook diplomatic missions to Venice and Naples.

Of his later works, the moralistic biographies gathered as ''De casibus virorum illustrium'' (1355–74) and ''De mulieribus claris'' (1361–1375) were the most significant.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://digilander.libero.it/il_boccaccio/index.html |title=The chronological archives of his complete works |publisher=Digilander.libero.it |access-date=17 February 2010}}</ref> Other works include a dictionary of geographical allusions in classical literature, ''De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis seu paludibus, et de nominibus maris liber''. He gave a series of lectures on Dante at the Santo Stefano church in 1373 and these resulted in his final major work, the detailed ''Esposizioni sopra la Commedia di Dante''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=IntraText Digital Library: Author Card: Giovanni Boccaccio|url=http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/AUT47.HTM|access-date=2022-01-12|website=www.intratext.com}}</ref> Boccaccio and Petrarch were also two of the most educated people in early Renaissance in the field of [[archaeology]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coulter |first=Cornelia C. |date=1937 |title=Boccaccio's Archaeological Knowledge |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/498505 |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=397–405 |doi=10.2307/498505 |jstor=498505|s2cid=207358292 }}</ref>

Petrarch even offered to purchase Boccaccio's library, so that it would become part of [[Petrarch's library]]. However, upon Boccaccio's death, his entire collection was given to the monastery of [[Santo Spirito, Florence|Santo Spirito, in Florence]], where it still resides.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML-voice.php?recordID=0558 |title=Library of Liberty |publisher=Oll.libertyfund.org |access-date=17 February 2010 }}{{dead link|date=January 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Boccaccio's final years were troubled by illnesses, some relating to obesity and what often is described as [[dropsy]], severe edema that would be described today as [[congestive heart failure]]. He died on 21 December 1375 in Certaldo, where he is buried.