Giovanni Boccaccio

Timeline

1. 1340–1350Florence · TuscanyIn the 1340s he engaged in commerce and literary activity in Florence, producing early works such as Filocolo and Fiammetta; around 1341 he met Petrarch and began shifting toward writing in the Italian vernacular.
2. 1348–1353Florence · TuscanyConceived and completed against the backdrop of the Black Death plague, the Decameron presents a hundred tales depicting urban society, blending humor, satire, and moral reflection, and became a classic of Italian Renaissance prose.
3. 1360–1375Certaldo · TuscanyAfter the 1360s he devoted himself more to classical and theological writing; in 1373, influenced by Petrarch, he publicly lectured on Dante's Divine Comedy; he died near Certaldo in 1375, leaving a large body of works in Latin and Italian.