Boccaccio, Giovanni - short biography. Giovanni Boccaccio short biography

Giovanni Boccaccio - Italian poet and writer of the early Renaissance, humanist. Born in 1313, probably in June or July. He was born in Florence and became the fruit of the love of a Florentine merchant and a French woman. Perhaps it is because of his mother that some sources indicate Paris as his place of birth. Giovanni himself called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo - after the name of the area where his family came from.

Around 1330, Boccaccio moved to Naples: despite the boy’s literary talent, which was noticeable from an early age, his father saw him in the future only as a merchant, so he sent him to learn the intricacies of commerce. However, young Boccaccio showed neither ability nor interest in trading. The father eventually lost hope that his son would continue his work, and allowed him to study canon law. But Boccaccio did not become a lawyer; his only passion was poetry, to which he had the opportunity to devote himself only much later, after the death of his father in 1348.

Living in Naples, Boccaccio becomes part of the entourage of King Robert of Anjou. It was during this period that he became a poet and humanist. His friends were scientists, educated people, and influential people. Giovanni read ancient authors avidly, and the environment itself greatly contributed to the expansion of his ideas about the world. A fairly large period of his creative biography is associated with Naples. In honor of his muse, whom he called Fiametta in his poems, he wrote a large number of poems; in addition, the poems “The Hunt of Diana”, “Theseid”, “Philostrato” were created, as well as a prose novel, which were of great importance for the formation of new Italian literature.

In 1340, his father, who by that time was completely bankrupt, demanded Boccaccio's return to Florence, although he, as before, was indifferent to commerce. Gradually, the humanist began to participate in the political and social life of the city. In 1341, a friendship appeared in his life, which he carried throughout his life - with Francesco Petrarch. Thanks to this relationship, Boccaccio began to take himself and life more seriously. He enjoyed great influence among the townspeople; he was often given diplomatic assignments on behalf of the Florentine Republic. Boccaccio devoted a lot of energy to educational work, aroused interest in antiquity and science, and personally copied ancient manuscripts.

In 1350-1353 Boccaccio wrote the main work of his life, which glorified him for centuries - “The Decameron” - a hundred short stories that were ahead of their time, creating a vivid panorama of Italian life, imbued with freethinking, lively humor, and ideas of humanism. Its success was simply stunning, and in different countries, into whose languages it was immediately translated.

In 1363, Boccaccio left Florence and came to Certaldo, a small estate, where he completely immersed himself in his books and lived contentedly with little. The closer old age loomed, the more superstitious Boccaccio became, the more seriously he took faith and the church, but to say that a turning point occurred in his worldview would be a great exaggeration. This is evidenced by his work and the apogee of friendship and unity of views with Petrarch. With the works written during these years dedicated to Dante, literary criticism of a new type began to develop. He gave public lectures on the “Divine Comedy” until a serious illness knocked him down. The death of Petrarch made the strongest impression on Boccaccio; he outlived his friend by a little less than a year and a half. On December 21, 1375, the heart of the great humanist, one of the most educated people in Italy of his time, stopped.

Biography - BOCACCIO GIOVANNI (1313-1375)
Giovanni Boccaccio - Italian poet and writer of the early Renaissance, humanist. Born in 1313, probably in June or July. He was born in Florence and became the fruit of the love of a Florentine merchant and a French woman. Perhaps it is because of his mother that some sources indicate Paris as his place of birth. Giovanni himself called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo - after the name of the area where his family came from.
Around 1330, Boccaccio moved to Naples: despite the boy’s literary talent, which was noticeable from an early age, his father saw him in the future only as a merchant, so he sent him to learn the intricacies of commerce. However, young Boccaccio showed neither ability nor interest in trading. The father eventually lost hope that his son would continue his work, and allowed him to study canon law. But Boccaccio did not become a lawyer; his only passion was poetry, to which he had the opportunity to devote himself only much later, after the death of his father in 1348.
Living in Naples, Boccaccio becomes part of the entourage of King Robert of Anjou. It was during this period that he became a poet and humanist. His friends were scientists, educated people, and influential people. Giovanni read ancient authors avidly, and the environment itself greatly contributed to the expansion of his ideas about the world. A fairly large period of his creative biography is associated with Naples. In honor of his muse, whom he called Fiametta in his poems, he wrote a large number of poems; in addition, the poems “The Hunt of Diana”, “Theseid”, “Philostrato” were created, as well as a prose novel, which were of great importance for the formation of new Italian literature.
In 1340, his father, who by that time was completely bankrupt, demanded Boccaccio's return to Florence, although he, as before, was indifferent to commerce. Gradually, the humanist began to participate in the political and social life of the city. In 1341, a friendship appeared in his life, which he carried throughout his life - with Francesco Petrarch. Thanks to this relationship, Boccaccio began to take himself and life more seriously. He enjoyed great influence among the townspeople; he was often given diplomatic assignments on behalf of the Florentine Republic. Boccaccio devoted a lot of energy to educational work, aroused interest in antiquity and science, and personally copied ancient manuscripts.
In 1350-1353 Boccaccio wrote the main work of his life, which glorified him for centuries - “The Decameron” - a hundred short stories that were ahead of their time, creating a vivid panorama of Italian life, imbued with freethinking, lively humor, and ideas of humanism. Its success was simply stunning, and in different countries, into whose languages it was immediately translated.
In 1363, Boccaccio left Florence and came to Certaldo, a small estate, where he completely immersed himself in his books and lived contentedly with little. The closer old age loomed, the more superstitious Boccaccio became, the more seriously he took faith and the church, but to say that a turning point occurred in his worldview would be a great exaggeration. This is evidenced by his work and the apogee of friendship and unity of views with Petrarch. With the works written in these years dedicated to Dante, a new type of literary criticism began to develop. He gave public lectures on the “Divine Comedy” until a serious illness knocked him down. The death of Petrarch made the strongest impression on Boccaccio; he outlived his friend by a little less than a year and a half. On December 21, 1375, the heart of the great humanist, one of the most educated people in Italy of his time, stopped.

The Italian writer is one of the first representatives of humanistic literature of the Renaissance. Friend Petrarch.

The most famous work is the novel in short stories Decameron (10-day stories) / Decameron.

“... suppose a woman leaves a man and this makes him unhappy - there is every chance that he will write some kind of inspired poem or novel. We know many such examples Boccaccio in his preface to the Decameron he writes that unhappy love created this book for him. He wrote this book “thanks to Cupid, who freed him from his bonds.”

Zoshchenko M.M., Comments and articles on the story “Youth Returned”, Collected Works in 2 volumes, Volume 2, Ekaterinburg “U-Factoria”, 2003, p. 336.

“The Decameron” (in Russian “Ten Days”) consists of one hundred short stories told over ten days alternately by young men and women of noble families who secluded themselves in the outskirts of Florence during the plague epidemic.
Each day opens with a screensaver for ten short stories, telling how this small group of young people, educated, sensitive to the beauty of nature, faithful to the norms of nobility and good breeding, spends their time.
The framing of the Decameron short stories outlines the contours of the Renaissance utopia and paints an idyllic picture: culture turns out to be the elevating and cementing principle of an ideal microsociety. In the short stories themselves, Boccaccio reveals with extraordinary breadth and insight other the world - the real diversity of life with all the richness of human characters and everyday circumstances. The heroes of the short stories belong to different social strata: townspeople and clerics, commoners and nobles. The images of the characters are full-blooded and lifelike: these are people indulging in earthly joys, including carnal pleasures, which were so decisively condemned by church morality. Boccaccio rehabilitates a woman, speaks of the uplifting moral power of love, but at the same time he angrily ridicules the hypocrisy and voluptuousness of monks and clergy.
The Decameron highlighted new facets of the emerging humanistic worldview, including its anti-ascetic ideals.
Boccaccio is in the spotlight, as is Petrarch, - the problem of Personal Self-Awareness, which will receive a broad perspective in the further development of Renaissance culture.
The Decameron was extremely popular in Italy and abroad. Already in the 14th century. it was translated into French and English, and its plots were often borrowed and reworked in the spirit of the national traditions of other countries.
However, the church sharply condemned the Decameron as an immoral work, damaging its authority, and insisted that Boccaccio renounce his brainchild.
Experiencing mental anguish, Boccaccio turned to Petrarch, who in a reply letter kept him from burning the Decameron.
Boccaccio’s important contribution to the formation of humanistic culture was his work “Genealogy of Pagan Gods,” which traces the relationships of ancient myths, their origins and forms a unique pantheon of gods and heroes of ancient mythology. The author continued what he started here Petrarch rehabilitation of pagan poetry, emphasizing its closeness to theology.
Boccaccio argued that poetry reveals high truths about man and the world around him, but does so in its inherent form of allegory, so it deserves the same attention and deep understanding as the truths of theology.”

Bragina L.M., Italian humanism of the Renaissance: ideological searches, in Sat.: Humanistic thought of the Italian Renaissance / Comp. L.M. Bragina, M., “Science”, 2004, p. 10-11.

Around 1360 Giovanni Boccaccio wrote his first biography Dante: Life of Dante Alighieri / Vita di Dante and comments on 17 songs of his “Divine Comedy”.

In addition, he is the author of treatises in Latin: On the genealogy of the gods / De genealogia deorum gentilium in 15 books; About famous women / De claris mulieribus (includes 106 women's biographies - from the ancestress Eve to Queen Joan of Naples); About the misadventures of famous men / De casibus virorum illustribus in 9 books.

Of particular interest are the XIV and XV books of this extensive work, written in the “defense of poetry” against medieval attacks on it.

These books, which gained enormous popularity during the Renaissance, laid the foundation for a special genre of “poetry apologia.”

Essentially, we are seeing here a polemic with medieval aesthetics. Boccaccio opposes the accusation of poetry and poets of immoralism, excess, frivolity, deception, etc. In contrast to medieval authors who reproached Homer and other ancient writers in depicting frivolous scenes, Boccaccio proves the poet’s right to depict any subjects.

It is also unfair, according to Boccaccio, to accuse poets of lying. Poets do not lie, but only “weave fiction”, telling the truth under the cover of deception or, more precisely, fiction. In this regard, Boccaccio passionately argues for the right of poetry to fiction (inventi), the invention of the new. In the chapter “That poets are not deceitful,” Boccaccio says directly: poets “... are not bound by the obligation to adhere to the truth in the external form of fiction; on the contrary, if we take away from them the right to freely use any kind of invention, all the benefits of their labor will turn to dust.” (On the genealogy of the pagan gods, XIV).

Boccaccio calls poetry "divine science." Moreover, sharpening the conflict between poetry and theology, he declares theology itself to be a type of poetry, because it, like poetry, turns to fiction and allegories.

In his apology for poetry, Boccaccio argued that its most important qualities are passion (furor) and ingenuity (inventio). This attitude towards poetry had nothing in common with the artisanal approach to art; it justified the freedom of the artist, his right to creativity.

Thus, already in the 14th century, the early Italian humanists formed a new attitude towards art as a free activity, as an activity of imagination and fantasy. All these principles formed the basis of the aesthetic theories of the 15th century.”

History of aesthetic thought in 6 volumes, Volume 2, Medieval East. Europe XV – XVIII centuries, M., “Art”, 1985, p. 1344-135.

Works Giovanni Boccaccio influenced creativity: George Byron, Goethe, Jean de La Fontaine, Moliere, Jonathan Swift, William Shakespeare and many others.

Giovanni Boccaccio- Italian poet and writer of the early Renaissance, humanist.

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313 g., in June or July in Florence in the family of a local merchant and a French woman. Giovanni himself called himself Boccaccio da Certaldo - after the name of the area where his family came from.

Somewhere in 1330 he moved to Naples, studied merchant wisdom (at the request of his father), but, not showing any ability for it, began to study canon law. But Boccaccio did not become a lawyer; his only passion was poetry, to which he had the opportunity to devote himself only much later, after the death of his father in 1348.

In 1363, Giovanni left Florence and settled on a small estate in Certaldo, completely immersing himself in creativity. Until he was overcome by a serious illness, he gave public lectures on the “Divine Comedy”.

A big shock for Boccaccio was the news of the death of his friend Petrarch; he outlived his friend by a little less than a year and a half.

December 21, 1375 the heart of the great humanist, one of the most educated people in Italy of his time, stopped.

BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI(Boccaccio, Giovanni) (1313–1375), Italian prose writer, poet, humanist. The illegitimate son of the merchant Boccaccio del fu Kellino, better known as Boccaccino from Certaldo, a town southwest of Florence, Boccaccio was born in 1313, presumably in Paris; his mother, Jeanne, was French.

At the time of the birth of his son, Boccaccino was working for the Florentine banking house of Bardi. In 1316 or a little later, his employers recalled him to Florence. He took his son with him, and the future writer spent his early years in the beneficial atmosphere of the city, where by that time commerce and the arts flourished. Under the guidance of Giovanni da Strada, father of the poet Zanobi, he studied "grammar" (Latin). Later, his father decided to introduce him to “arithmetic” - the art of keeping accounts.

In 1327, the House of Bardi sent Boccaccino to Naples as manager of the Neapolitan branch of the bank. In Naples, Giovanni, already dreaming of fame as a poet, was apprenticed to a Florentine merchant. In this position, he said, he wasted six years. Another six years were spent studying canon law, again at the insistence of his father. Only then did Boccaccino assign Giovanni maintenance.

Life in Naples greatly developed Boccaccio. The son of an influential banker who repeatedly lent money to King Robert of Anjou (1309–1343), he had access to the court of the enlightened monarch, where he met soldiers, sailors, wealthy merchants and philosophers. At the same time, Boccaccio experienced several love interests, until on March 30, 1336, in the small church of San Lorenzo, he met a woman, Maria d'Aquino, who went down in literary history under the name of Fiammetta. Almost all of Boccaccio's early books were written for her or about her. At first, the novel developed in the best traditions of courtly love, but soon Maria became Giovanni’s mistress. She did not remain faithful to him for long. Stung by the betrayal, Boccaccio wrote a sonnet - one of the most evil denunciations in Italian literature.

In 1339 the Bardi house was destroyed. Boccaccino lost his job, Giovanni lost his salary. For some time he tried to live on the meager income from a small estate near Piedigrotta, given to him by his father. After the death of his stepmother and half-brother, on January 11, 1341, he returned to Florence. In life's troubles, Boccaccio was supported only by the friendship of Petrarch, whom he met in 1350, when he arrived in Florence, and his tender love for his illegitimate daughter Violanta, whose death he mourned in Latin verse.

Florence appointed Boccaccio as its treasurer, instructed him to purchase the city of Prato from Naples, and sent him at least seven times on important diplomatic missions, three of them to various popes. On duty, he traveled all over Italy, visited Avignon and, probably, Tyrol. The last years of Boccaccio's life were bleak. Being a middle-aged man, he fell in love with a widow, who made him a laughing stock. In response, Boccaccio wrote a short book Crow (Il Corbaccio, 1355) is a masterpiece of misogyny, even for an era when it was par for the course. A few years later, the monk Joachim Chany visited him and, reproaching Boccaccio for the “sinful” tone of his writings, urged him to burn all his books. Only Petrarch's letter kept the writer from taking this step. Boccaccio then took a trip to Naples, but neither the promised work nor a warm welcome awaited him there. Then he went to his father’s homeland, Certaldo.

The last time Boccaccio appeared in public was in 1373, when he was commissioned to give a course of lectures on Dante in Florence. But his strength left him, and he read only a small part of the planned course. Boccaccio died in Certaldo on December 31, 1375.

Boccaccio's creative heritage is extensive and varied. In addition to the novel in short stories Decameron (Decameron, 1348–1351), he wrote four large poems, a novel and a story, an allegory in the spirit of Dante Ameto (L"Ameto, 1342), satire Crow, biographical book The Life of Dante Alighieri (Vita di Dante, 1360–1363) and commentaries on 17 of his songs Divine Comedy, four treatises in Latin, many poems, letters and Latin eclogues.

Some of Boccaccio's works had a significant influence on writers of subsequent generations. Yes, a poem Filostrato (Filostrato, 1338) inspired Chaucer to create Troilus and Chryseids, about 2700 lines of which are almost literal translations from Boccaccio. Another great poem by Boccaccio, Theseides (Teseida, 1339), written in octaves, gave the same Chaucer a plot for the story of a knight in Canterbury Tales. In 1344–1346 Boccaccio wrote a poem Fiesolan nymphs (Ninfale Fiesolano), an exquisite idyll, unsurpassed even during the heyday of Renaissance literature.

Novels Philocolo (Filocolo, 1336) and Elegy of the Madonna Fiammetta (L"Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta, 1343), despite some verbosity, give vivid and truthful pictures of the life of Naples and an idea of the role of Boccaccio in it. The first is a retelling of an old French legend Flour and Blancheflor. The second is deeply autobiographical and is considered the first psychological novel. Of Boccaccio's scientific works, only The Life of Dante Alighieri and attached to it Commentary on the Divine Comedy (Commento alla Commedia) retain scientific value. They are based on materials provided by Dante's nephew Andrea Pozzi, his close friends Dino Perini and Piero Giardino, his daughter Antonia (the monastic sister of Beatrice), and possibly his sons Pietro and Jacopo. The cult of Dante began with Boccaccio. Latin treatises of Boccaccio About the misadventures of famous husbands (De casibus virorum illustribus), About famous women (De claris mulieribus), ABOUT genealogy of the gods (De genealogia deorum gentilium) And About mountains, forests, sources... (De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, etc.), losing a lot due to the dogmatic approach traditional for the Middle Ages, are interesting for their biographical references and have historical significance as examples of pre-humanistic literature.

Notable events that served as the impetus for the creation Decameron. In 1348, an epidemic of bubonic plague raged in Europe, killing 25 million people. The disease did not spare Italy, including Florence. The plague also affected morals. Some saw in it the punishing hand of the Lord, and this became the reason for a powerful surge in religiosity. Others - they were the majority - made "carpe diem" - "seize the moment" - their life principle. Boccaccio was one of them.

Long before that, he had been collecting funny and interesting parables, stories and anecdotes. The sources were very different: oriental tales and French fabliaux, Roman acts (Gesta Romanorum) and early collections of short stories, such as Novellino (Cento Novelle Antiche) And Adventures of a Sicilian (L"Avventuroso Ciciliano), palace and street gossip and, finally, real events of that time. Wise from life experience and the disasters he had experienced, in the prime of his creative powers, Boccaccio was ready to begin processing them. Having made the narrators three young men (each of them, perhaps, representing some aspect of the author’s personality) and seven young women (probably his lovers), who, fleeing the plague, leave Florence, Boccaccio brought all the short stories into a single, integral work.

Despite the obvious influence of Ciceronian mannerism, the language Decameron lively, colourful, rich, refined and melodic. Boccaccio is gallant, balanced, more sophisticated, sometimes cynical, but invariably humane. He left us a picture of a brilliant and stormy era - the autumn of the Middle Ages. From Decameron drew images and ideas from Chaucer, W. Shakespeare, Moliere, Madame de Sevigne, J. Swift, J. Lafontaine, I. V. Goethe, D. Keats, J. G. Byron and G. W. Longfellow.