ABOUT THIS BOOK

A comprehensive biography of the celebrated author of the Decameron, a medieval masterpiece written in early Italian.

Boccaccio (1313–75) stands with Dante and Petrarch as one of the “Three Crowns” of Italian letters, a trio of writers who shaped the history of humanism, literature, and poetry. In this book, Dante’s award-winning biographer, Marco Santagata, takes up the moving life and legacy of Boccaccio—whose unflinching story of a pandemic-era community (the Decameron) created new possibilities for vernacular Italian prose.

This landmark biography sheds new light on Boccaccio’s life—his family, friends, and foes, his aspirations, fears, and frustrations—and it shows how he was affected by transformations in Italian society. It also charts the influences that shaped Boccaccio’s understanding of literature: what kinds of stories it could tell and what kinds of characters it could depict; and, perhaps most importantly, what role art could play in a changing world. An insightful portrait of one of literature’s most important figures, this book promises to be the definitive biography of Boccaccio for many years to come.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Marco Santagata (1947–2020) was professor of Italian literature at the University of Pisa and the author of many books, including Dante: The Story of His Life. Emlyn Eisenach is an independent scholar and translator and the author of Husbands, Wives, and Concubines: Marriage, Family, and Social Order in Sixteenth-Century Verona.

REVIEWS

“A well-informed, learned, scholarly, comprehensive, ambitious, imaginative, justly critical, authoritative, accessible biography of one of the titans of Italian literature, and the founding father of modern Italian prose writing.”

— Robert Black, author of 'Machiavelli: From Radical to Reactionary'

“Santagata’s Boccaccio presents us with a portrait of the great Florentine writer that is rich in historical detail, exquisitely sensitive to the particular mix of literary tradition and innovation that Boccaccio represented, and brilliantly evocative of the fourteenth-century Florentine environment out of which Boccaccio emerged. Attending to Boccaccio’s work in both Latin and the Tuscan vernacular, Santagata has produced a magnum opus that will be the standard biography for years to come.”

— Christopher S. Celenza, author of 'Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer'

“In this engaging biography, a master scholar brings Giovanni Boccaccio to life through sensitive readings of virtually all his writings and an impressive command of both secondary and archival sources. This richly informative study offers a completely new portrait of Boccaccio that will breathe new life into our understanding of Italian Renaissance literature.”

— Guido Ruggiero, author of 'Love and Sex in the Time of Plague: A Decameron Renaissance'

"A tremendously detailed and readable work, very likely the best biography this writer has had since the one John Addington Symonds wrote back in 1895."

— Open Letters Review

"Mr. Santagata writes with a well-tuned awareness of previous Boccaccio biographies, without ever seeming pedantic or nitpicking. . . . He does so without assuming more authority than is warranted — perhaps because he realizes that he, too, may be subject to revision."

— New York Sun

"A striking picture . . . [and] a wonderfully clear and vivid window onto the life of a pivotal figure in the history of Italian literature. When seen in the proper light, it glistens with wit and originality.”

— Literary Review

"This painstakingly researched biography, scrupulously pieced together from numerous sources, warrants praise for many reasons..."

— Engelsberg Ideas

"Santagata . . . adds significantly to our knowledge."

— New Criterion

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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