BOCCACCIO AND THE PROSE WRITERS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO was born in 1313 in Paris, the son of a Florentine
merchant and a French-woman. His father had property in the hamlet of
Certaldo, and the author always signed himself "Boccaccio da Certaldo."
He was destined, first for commerce, then for the study of the law,
but finding neither avocation congenial, he after his father's death,
devoted himself entirely to his favourite pursuits. He was honoured
with the favour of King Robert of Naples and with the love of the
King's daughter, Maria, whom he celebrates in his poems under the name
of Fiammetta. His zeal for the writers of antiquity was not inferior
to that of Petrarch. He sent for Leontius Pilatus to teach him Greek.
He devoted large sums to the purchase and reproduction of the works of
classical writers. He seems to have been an amiable and honourable
man, free alike from pride like that of Dante, and from vanity like
that of Petrarch. He repented in later years of the somewhat frivolous
character of many of his writings, took holy orders, and spent the
last days of his life at Certaldo. When Florence endowed a chair for
the explanation of the _Divine Comedy,_ Boccaccio was the first to
be appointed. He wrote a life of Dante and began a commentary on the
_Inferno,_ which, however, he did not live to finish, dying at Certaldo
on the 21st of December, 1375.
Boccaccio was a most fertile writer, both in Latin and in Italian. His
Latin works have but little merit and are vastly inferior to those of
Petrarch in strength and originality of thought. His Italian poems
are heavy and uninteresting, but he has the credit of inventing the
"Ottava Rima," the stanza in which Ariosto and Tasso subsequently
wrote their immortal epics. Praise-worthy as these works were for the
time in which they were written, he would not occupy a high position
in the literature of his country, had he not proved himself in other
productions to be the first great writer of Italian prose. His romantic
stories, _Il Filocopo, La Fiammetta, l'Admeto,_ are written in a
flowing and pleasing style; his _Life of Dante_ and _Commentary on the
Inferno_ are valuable for the information they impart, but the crowning
glory of his literary career is the collection of stories published
under the title of _Il Decamerone._
The terrible plague that swept over the earth in the middle of the
Thirteenth Century, known in history as the "Black Death,"[1] ravaged
Florence with peculiar malignity, and Boccaccio feigns that five
ladies and their cavaliers took refuge in a villa in the neighbourhood
and beguiled their leisure by telling stories to each other. Being a
collection of tales told by various characters, the _Decamerone_ bears
a certain resemblance to another memorable work of the Fourteenth
Century, Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales,_ but happier than his great
contemporary, Boccaccio lived to complete his design.
The work opens with a noble description of the Plague of Florence,
but this gloomy and terrible introduction gives no forecast of the
light, festive and occasionally indecorous character of many of the
tales. Others, however, are highly picturesque and even poetical,
and some have a special interest for English readers as being the
sources whence Shakespeare drew _All's Well that Ends Well,_ and
_Cymbeline,_--Dryden, _Theodore and Honoria_ and _Sigismonda and
Guiscardo,_ and Keats _Isabella, or the Pot of Basil._
Boccaccio had every quality of a great novelist. His style is varied,
flexible and animated, and his idiom is so purely Tuscan that it was
held up as a standard by the _Accademia della Crusca,_ and if any fault
can be found with it, it is that the copiousness of his vocabulary
sometimes leads him into florid and redundant amplifications. His
characters are drawn with considerable skill. His dialogue is
invariably natural and appropriate. His incidents, though sometimes
overstepping the limits of decorum, are ingenious and entertaining. The
work gives a brilliant panorama of the men and manners of Italy in the
Fourteenth Century.
No writer has derived more advantage from the admiration of other
writers than Boccaccio. Great poets are indebted to him for the plots
of some of their most successful works. Great painters have vied with
each other in illustrating the brilliant scenes of his _Decamerone._
Great philologians and grammarians have expressed their admiration for
the purity and elegance of his style. Brilliant as his services were
to the literature of his country, they have received a more than ample
measure of reward from the gratitude of posterity.
Italy produced in the Fourteenth Century many other prose writers of
note, though none so eminent as Boccaccio.
First and foremost we must mention the invaluable _Chronicle_ of
GIOVANNI VILLANI. This historian rose in the service of the Florentine
Republic until he became Prior. He was one of the many victims of the
Black Death, and his unfinished work was continued by his brother
MATTEO, and this continuation was completed by Matteo's son, FILIPPO.
All these are quoted as classics by the Accademia della Crusca.
According to competent judges, Giovanni was the most brilliant, Matteo
the most noteworthy for the important events he narrates, and Filippo
remarkable rather for industry and research than for ability as a
writer.
The _Travels_ of MARCO POLO, a Venetian, were an inestimable
contribution to the knowledge of remote countries. For centuries he lay
very unjustly under the suspicion of falsehood and exaggeration, and
it was only at a comparatively recent date that his veracity, nay, his
scrupulous exactness, received a tardy vindication.
JACOPO PASSAVANTI, a Dominican. Friar, wrote a devotional book,
entitled, _Lo Specchio della Penitenza,_ written in prose so musical
and flowing as to be preferred by some to the prose of Boccaccio,
because Passavanti never indulges in the over-elaboration sometimes to
be detected in the pages of the _Decamerone._
GIOVANNI DA CATIGNANO known in the Calendar as the Blessed John of the
Cells, after a dissolute youth was converted by the ardent exhortations
of the Abbot of Vallombrosa, and in deep contrition ended his days as a
hermit. Some letters from this interesting penitent are extant, written
in a style so exquisitely Tuscan that they are quoted by the Accademia
della Crusca as models of propriety and elegance.
Another canonized celebrity, SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, is no less
remarkable for the beauty of her style than for the beauty of her
character.
A Life of Saint Francis of Assisi, entitled _Fioretti di San
Francesco,_ has been highly praised for the freshness and simplicity
of the language. The piety or the modesty of the author induced him to
conceal his identity.
These religious writers, though treating of subjects so different,
almost equalled Boccaccio in perfection of style, but the two authors
who produced collections of stories somewhat similar to his, FRANCO
SACCHETTI and SER GIOVANNI FIORENTINO, were very far indeed from
approaching his mastery.
On reviewing the literary development of Italy in the Fourteenth
Century, we find that the language attained the fullest perfection
both in prose and verse, only the lighter kinds of poetry remaining
uncultivated. The appearance in one century of two such great poets as
Dante and Petrarch was quite phenomenal and threw a lustre over the age
which has attracted the whole world. But another fact, less universally
known, is equally worthy of attention, namely the extraordinary merit
of the prose writers of the period. It may well be doubted whether
any compositions in Italian prose of a later date exhibit the rare
qualities of those of the Fourteenth Century. Leopardi, indeed,
produced marvels of style, but they were the result of art and study,
whereas the writers of the Fourteenth Century display an ease and a
simplicity, a freshness and a graphic power, combined with the most
exquisite lightness and harmony in their phrases, that must ever
render them more admirable models than the artificial and laborious
productions of later ages.
[Footnote 1: For details on the subject of this most terrible
pestilence, probably the worst that ever afflicted humanity, we may
refer the reader to Father Gasquet's valuable and interesting work on
the subject.]