Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 – December 21, 1375) was an Italian poet, writer, and humanist, best known as the author of the Decameron, one of the masterpieces of medieval and early Renaissance literature. He was born in Florence, the illegitimate son of the wealthy merchant Boccaccio di Chellino and an unknown woman. His father took him to Naples and hoped he would become a merchant, but Boccaccio was more interested in literature and devoted himself to poetry and storytelling.
From the 1330s onward he began writing his major works. Financial difficulties forced him to return to Florence in 1340. In 1350 he met Petrarch, whose friendship greatly influenced his intellectual development. Around this period he completed the Decameron, his most celebrated work. Boccaccio spent the rest of his life writing and studying classical literature until his death on December 21, 1375, after a long illness.
Unlike many writers of his time, who focused on knights and heroic deeds, Boccaccio portrayed ordinary people with remarkable realism. The Decameron consists of one hundred stories told over ten days and presents a rich variety of characters, their loves, ambitions, passions, fears, and deceptions. Its introduction vividly describes the Black Death that devastated Florence in 1348 and provides the setting for one of the most influential works in European literature.
