The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-11-25
TODAY IN HISTORY
FRIDAY. NOVEMBER IS. 1910.
Birthday OF BoccaccIo,
FRIDAY.

Boccaccio. 'the third great figure in
italian ]itera turc. who. lacking the in
spir3tion OF Dante and the perfect form
of Petrarch, IS remembered in the history
OF culture as the creator OF a classic
italian prose, and. through the Ocean
eron,' az the father Of the modern novel.
was born in Paris. where his father was
temporarily residing. on November 26
1913.
The question which mos, people will
ask as they close THE Decameron" is.
What manner of man was he who wrote
It? OF outward events there is enough,
though not TOO much. TO tell. Boccaccio
was born In 1913: probably In Paris; OF a
French mother. He was taken in his in
fancy TO Florence, but his father. well
to do banker. had married. and his child
hood was unhappy Al 10, or not long
after. hc went TO Naples TO work I'm
merchants office. As he ncared the city.
the tired boy, stopping TO rest. fell asleep
and dreamed thdt he was passing through
n street he had never seen hefore. and
him II was not till eight years later
when. sick OF the office, he was learning
canon Law. that on Holy Saturday.
coming out OF church, he first saw the
real lady. in her green robe "all shining
with Eold"-his Fiammetta, his love for
whom remained with him all his lie
From passion II cooled TO a sentiment al
mos,-one may say-into a literary senti-
ment Had it been otherwise, II would
surely have coorcd his conception OF love
and Of women. which was remarkably
low.
Fsanmetta's real name was Maria
Amino and she was the ilesItimatc
daughter Of King Robert of Naples. and
ii princess married to q noble. Boccacc,o
got To know her at once and became her
devoted slave, serving her from 1881 till
1885 when he found out her inhdelity
Not long after his fathers ruin called
him hack 10 Florence, But meanwhile
he had been in worthier service than
hers In the cultured town OF Naples he
had found men OF learning and OF letters /.
nc had been plunged in the study OF the
classics; he had read Virgil 'in the
shadow OF tho poets tomb And he
had begun to write himself, The "Filo.
colo" the ''F'ilostrato,' the 'Fiammetta'
and other works belong to his last years
in Naples, and his first In Florence, From
that time onward he devoted himself to
literature ard TO scholarship: the more
So perhaps. that Fiammetta died of the
plague in i34S
II was not until 1850 that the greatest
event In his life-hs meeting with
Pctrarch-occurred: greatest because
most enduring, for it melted him 10 study
Homer and to supeTintend the first trans
lation in Italy Of that poet into Latin.
This he would have called the serious
work of his life. He went on several
embassies from FloreDce-one to take a
purse TO Dante's daughter Beatrice, then
In n convent at Rsvenna: another to Pope
y
native city; he lectured on Dante there;
he wrote Dante's life. In 1858 he gave
The Decameron" 10 the public. But
honors civic end literary counted little
with Potrarch beside honor and Boccac-
cio as in most things, followed his judg-
ment. Pctrarch's death came In 1874,
and that OF Boccaccio one year later. He
died poor. neglected and alone In his
house AT Certaldo.
The best part Of Boccaccin was not
his love. but his friendship His intimacy
with Petr5rch was one OF the great
friendships In the annals OF art-friend
ships such have produced new move
nents: IKE that between Ronsard and
Thu Bellay which gave us The poetry Of
the Pleiade. or the feeling between Cole
ridge and Wordsworth. or the bond that
knit together the Pre- RAJ phaelites. The
meeting between Petrarch and Boccaccio
meant the dawn OF the classical Renais-
sance for though scholarship had revived
before them. IL was they who gave the
impetus to the study of Greek which had
such far-reaching results. And II was a
noble companionship. The passionate.
vital. generous Boccaccio needed the har-
monious suaYity. the scholarly refinement
even the coolness OF Petrarch. He had
loved him from afar before he know him
They did not sec one another for eight
wears after their first coming together.
but when they did it was with the same
ardor.
On November % 17ss. the British
oroo,atod Nou,. Cify