Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio Boccaccio was born in Paris, in 1313, the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant and a French noblewoman. Reared in Florence, he was sent to study accounting in Naples around 1323. He abandoned accounting for canon law and gave that up for classical and scientific studies. He took part in the life of the court of Robert d'Anjou, king of Naples. The king is supposed to have had an illegitimate daughter, Maria de Conti d'Aquino. …

…of 100 stories is set within a framework. A group of friends, seven women and three men, all "well bred, of worth and discretion," to escape an outbreak of the plague have taken refuge in a country villa outside Florence. There they entertain one another over a period of ten days with a series of stories told by each member. At the conclusion of the 100th tale, the friends return to their homes in the city.