Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was born on June 16, 1313 in Florence, and developed as a person and artist during his ten-year stay in Naples. In the lavish court of King Robert of Anjou where Boccaccio was active as a young poet, culture had a cult status. The monarch was a patron of the people of the arts and encouraged the Epicurean atmosphere in which they worked. It was in Naples that Boccaccio became a famous poet and humanist. Here he experienced a series of fateful romances, such as with the illegitimate daughter of the king himself, Maria d’Aquino, who remained the queen of his heart until the end of his life. Around the year 1340, on the insistence of his father, the already confident poet returned to Florence. He continued to write poetry and entered the political scene in his hometown. The great plague epidemic in Florence in 1348 had a major impact on the life and work of Boccaccio. This tragedy inspired the voluminous collection of short stories “The Decameron.”