Italian novelist, b. in Paris, 1313; d. in Certaldo, 21
December, 1375. His father, a merchant from Certaldo and a man
of some prominence in Florence, had gone into business in Paris.
Shortly afterwards the elder Boccaccio deserted Giannina, the
mother of Giovanni, and brought the boy to Florence where he put
him to school until he was ten years old, when he took him into
business. In 1327 Giovanni was sent to Naples to study law. But
he gave himself up almost entirely to literature, and became
intimately acquainted with some of the most prominent men and
women of the court of Anjou. It is supposed that it was in 1334
that he saw for the first time Maria d'Acquino, a married woman
and natural daughter of King Robert. She was the inspiration of
his earlier works, and the heroine of whom he tells under the
name of Fiammetta. In 1340 we find him back in Florence; on the
death of his father in 1348, he became the guardian of a younger
brother. He held certain public offices in Florence and was
entrusted with dipl