Best known as the author of the Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio is a key figure in Italian literature. In the mid-fourteenth century, however, Boccaccio was also deeply involved in the politics of Florence and the extent of his involvement steered and inspired his work as a writer.
Boccaccio's Florence explores the financial, political, and social turbulence of Florence at this time, as well as the major players in literary and political circles, to understand the complex ways they emerged in Boccaccio's writing. Based on extensive archival research and close reading of Boccaccio's works, the book aims to recover the dynamics of the Florentine conspiracy of 1360 and how this event affected Boccaccio's writing, arguing that his works reveal clear references to this episode when read in light of the reconstructed historical context.
In this rich and textured picture of the man in his time, Elsa Filosa documents a microhistory of connections and interconnections and offers new, more political and historically imbedded readings of Boccaccio's seminal works.
| ISBN: | 9781487505806 |
| Publication date: | 9th November 2022 |
| Author: | Elsa Filosa |
| Publisher: | University of Toronto Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 400 pages |
| Series: | Toronto Italian Studies |
| Genres: |
European history: medieval period, middle ages European history: Renaissance Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800 European history Literature: history and criticism |