Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313 in Florence. An Italian writer and poet from Florence, Boccaccio grew up in Naples, where he developed his literary interests at the court of King Robert. He is best known for the Decameron, a collection of one hundred tales told by ten young people who have taken refuge in a country villa to escape the Black Death in 1348. Its vivid, often comic and earthy stories of love, trickery and fortune became a model for Italian prose, and influenced later writers such as Chaucer. A friend of Petrarch, he also wrote poems, a biography of Dante and works of scholarship and mythology, helping to spread humanist ideas. He died in Certaldo.
Before and after
- 20 July 1304Birth of Petrarch
- from 1309 to 1377Avignon Papacy
- 1310Rise of ars nova
- 13 November 1312Birth of Edward III of England
- 1313Birth of Giovanni Boccaccio
- 1315Origins of Gračanica monastery
- from 1315 to 1317Great Famine of 1315–1317
- from 1320 to 1413Tughlaq dynasty
- 1320The Divine Comedy
More in Art, literature & culture
- 787 CESecond Council of Nicaea
- 803 CELeshan Giant Buddha
- 11th centuryPublication of The Song of Roland
- 11th centuryBayeux Tapestry
- 14th centuryPublication of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- 1387Publication of The Canterbury Tales
The era
This moment belongs to the Medieval world (500 CE to 1500 CE), kingdoms, faiths and trade routes. You can also browse everything in the 14th century.