The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

1954-1955

Special Collections PQ4272 E5 A3571 1954

Westminster [England]: Folio Society

The Italian Francesco Petrarch (1304-74) was one of the great characters of 14th century Renaissance Europe. He is credited with finding forgotten and discarded classical manuscripts, such as Cicero’s Ad Atticum, and making them popular amongst his contemporaries. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), Petrarch’s friend and pupil, also rediscovered classical works and is thought to have been the first early modern European in the west to learn ancient Greek. So began the cultural revolution of the Renaissance encompassing not just literature but painting, sculpture, music, politics and architecture – ‘a resurgence of learning based on classical sources’ (Highet).