Giovanni Boccaccio facts for kids

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 - December 21, 1375) was an Italian author and poet. He wrote several famous works, such as On Famous Women and the Decameron. Boccaccio was the first poet, who used ottava rima in longer poems. Thus he started long tradition of employing this form in epic poems. Some of Geoffrey Chaucer's works were based on Boccaccio's poems.

Images for kids

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  Giovanni Boccaccio

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  Portrait by Andrea del Castagno, circa 1450

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  1845 statue of Boccaccio by Fantacchiotti in Uffizi Gallery

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  Boccaccio and others fleeing the plague; illumination of a French edition of the Decamerone (c. 1485)

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  Circes: illustration of one of the women featured in the 1374 biographies of 106 famous women, De Claris Mulieribus, by Boccaccio – from a German translation of 1541