Two illustrations from Boccaccio's "Lamentations of Fiameda"

In 1348, in Florence, Italy, a vicious plague was prevalent - the Black Death. To escape the plague, three young men and seven young women met in the church of Santa Lea Novella, and they fled together to a villa in the countryside. Here, in addition to enjoying the scenery, feasting and dancing, in order to kill time, they agreed to tell a story each day, and told a total of 100 stories in 10 days. These 100 stories are the entire contents of the famous work of world literature "Decameron". Its author is called Bocaccio, one of the earliest representatives of the Italian Renaissance.

Bocaccio, the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant and a French woman, was born in Paris in 1313 and lost his mother as a child. After his father remarried, he was taken back to Florence and spent his childhood in the cold family of his father and stepmother. He decided to write poetry as a child, and was called a "poet" by his friends. In 1328, his father forced him to study business, but he wasted six years. Later, his father sent him to Naples to study law, but he had no interest in religious law as much as in business. He said: "I wasted another six years or so. I hated this subject so much. The teachings of my husband, the orders of my father, or the exhortations of my friends could not make me feel at ease to learn, because my good poetry cannot be restrained."

Despite this, this life in Naples left a profound impact on Bocaccio. At that time, the court of Naples was relatively open-minded, and a group of famous scholars gathered around the king. Bocaccio had the opportunity to enter the court, get into contact with the court and the life of aristocratic knights, get into contact with humanists, and read many ancient Roman literary works., expanded his cultural knowledge. Here, he also fell in love with Maria, the illegitimate daughter of the King of Naples. This romantic life left traces in his creation. In the poems he wrote about Maria, he pseudonym Maria as "Fiameda."

Bo Jiachu wrote many books in his life, including: "Arlo Kolo", "Desaida", "The Phantom of Love", "Fiameda", "The Biography of Dante" and so on. The most influential is the collection of short stories "Decameron". Through those 100 stories, the author mocks the corruption and incompetence of the church, the treacherous hypocrisy of the monks, opposes asceticism, celebrates love, and advocates social equality and equality between men and women. Its flaw is that it often overplays sexual desire and vulgar taste, which produces certain negative effects. However, it can be regarded as a famous work that has had a huge impact on Western European literature.

Bocaccio died of illness on December 21, 1375.

Italian writer Boccaccio

Cover of the Chinese translation of Boccaccio's work "Decameron"

This picture is drawn based on a story in "Decameron"