Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Boccaccio: A Biography

Boccaccio: A Biography

Santagata, Marco
Eisenach, Emlyn

Hardcover

Literary FiguresLiterary Criticism

Publisher Price: $37.50

ISBN10: 0226820947
ISBN13: 9780226820941
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: May 7 2025
Pages: 424
Weight: 1.65
Height: 1.40 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
A comprehensive biography of the celebrated author of the Decameron, a medieval masterpiece written in early Italian.

Boccaccio (1313-75) stands with Dante and Petrarch as one of the Three Crowns of Italian letters, a trio of writers who shaped the history of humanism, literature, and poetry. In this book, Dante's award-winning biographer, Marco Santagata, takes up the moving life and legacy of Boccaccio--whose unflinching story of a pandemic-era community (the Decameron) created new possibilities for vernacular Italian prose.

This landmark biography sheds new light on Boccaccio's life--his family, friends, and foes, his aspirations, fears, and frustrations--and it shows how he was affected by transformations in Italian society. It also charts the influences that shaped Boccaccio's understanding of literature: what kinds of stories it could tell and what kinds of characters it could depict; and, perhaps most importantly, what role art could play in a changing world. An insightful portrait of one of literature's most important figures, this book promises to be the definitive biography of Boccaccio for many years to come.

Also in

Literary Figures

View All