The Italian Language

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) (1304-1374) confronted the divide between austere Medieval religion and the enjoyment of worldly pleasures, particularly love and fame. He was a precursor of Renaissance Humanism, evaluating as he did earthly existence. Like Dante, Petrarch also wrote in Latin, but his major works, The Triumphs, and Il Canzoniere, are in the vernacular. As Dante had his Beatrice, Petrarch had his Laura, though all we know of her is her name. Petrarch dreamed of restoring the glory of Rome and was the first poet since Ancient times to be crowned poet laureate at the ancient capital of the Empire.

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was much more interested in on earthly themes, taking little interest in moral, religious or political issues. Boccaccio's greatest work is the Decameron, a collection of 100 tales linked by a larger tale, boxes within boxes, in the same way as The Arabian Nights. No walk of life is ignored, no subject bypassed. Some of his tales are highly erotic, while others, like the story of Patient Griselda, are fairy-tales. Tales from The Decameron served as a model for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, while the story of Patient Griselda is better known though the pen of Perrault, the French author of Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.