Giovanni Boccaccio was born in the year

1313 in Italy.
He was a significant figure in the history
of Italian literature and was among the
founders of the Renaissance. In spite of
studying law and business for years,
Boccaccios interest naturally lied in
poetry and writing.
Besides being a writer, Giovanni was also
a humanist and sometimes accredited to
as the founder of Humanism.
 Giovanni attended school in Florence and was
taken into business at the age of 10. He was
sent to Naples to study business and law in
1327. His growing interest in literature drifted
him away from studying these subjects. He
eventually gave up on studying and entirely
dedicated himself to literature.

Boccaccio wrote a number of notable works,

including the Decameron and On Famous
Women.
Boccaccios object in his Genealogy of the
Gentile Gods
Boccaccio intended Genealogy of the Gentile
Gods as a monumental work of scholarship, a
mythological sourcebook that would
introduce readers to the study of the ancient
poets. His decision to write in Latin rather
than Italian is a measure of its seriousness as
a scholarly project.

Boccaccio is particularly concerned in

Genealogy of the Gentile Gods with the
relationship of poetry to philosophy
on a lofty throne, sits Philosophy, messenger
from the very bosom of God, mistress of all
knowledge. Noble is her mien and radiant with
godlike splendor. There she sits arrayed in royal
robes and adorned with a golden crown, like the
Empress of all the World. In her left hand she
holds several book, with her right she wields a
royal sceptre, and in clear and fluent discourse
she shows forth to such as will listen the truly
praiseworthy ideals of human character, the
forces of our Mother Nature, the true good, and
the secrets of heaven.
The first kind are certain men, seated in
high places, few in number, of gentle
aspect and utterance, who are so
distinguished by their seriousness,
honesty, and true humility that you take
them for gods not mortals. These men
abound in the faith and doctrine of the
mistress, and five freely to others of the
fullness of their knowledge
The other kind, Boccaccio calls as a noisy
crowd. who grow so elated with
elementary knowledge, that they fell upon
their great mistresss robes as it were with
their talons, and in violent haste tear away
a few shreds as samples; then don various
titles which they often pick up for a price;
and as puffed up as if they knew the whole
of divinity, they rush forth from the sacred
house, setting such mischief afoot among
ignorant people as only the wise can
calculate.
 They are, according to Boccaccio, sworn
conspirators against all high arts
How so?
Boccaccio gives a number of reasons:
1. they try to counterfeit a good man; they
exchange their natural expression for an
anxious, careful one. [] Their pace is
slow to make the uneducated think that
they stagger under an excessive weight of
high speculation
2. they proceed to display their wonderful
knowledge, and whatever they dont know
they damnto good effect too
At the sound of the word they blaze up in such a
sudden fury that you would say their eyes were
afire. They cannot stop; they go raging on by the
very momentum of their wrath. Finally, like
conspirators against a deadly enemy, in the
schools, in public squares, in pulpits, with a lazy
crowd, as a rule, for an audience, they break out
into such mad denunciation of poets that
bystanders are afraid of the speakers themselves,
let alone the harmless objects of attack
 Poets are liars
Poetry is not theology (not a
spiritual pursuit and is therefore
worthless.
Poets are merely apes of
Philosophy
 They say poetry is absolutely of no account, and
making of poetry a useless and absurd craft; that
poets are tale-mongers, or, in lower terms, liars;
that they live in the country among the woods
and mountains because they lack manners and
polish
Poets poems are false, obscure, lewd, and
replete with absurd and silly tales of pagan gods
Again and again [they] cry out that poets are
seducers of the mind, prompters of crime, and,
not make their foul charge fouler, if possible, they
say they are philosophers apes, that it is a
heinous crime to read or possess the books of
poets (257)
This poetry, which ignorant trifles cast
aside, is a sort of fervid and exquisite
invention, with fervid expression, in speech
or writing, of that which the mind has
invented. It proceeds from the bosom of
God, and few, I find, are the souls in whom
this gift is born; indeed so wonderful a gift
that true poets have always been the rarest
of men.
What good does poetry do?
Poetry is a practical art, springing from
Gods bosom and deriving its name from its
effect, and that it has to do with many high
and noble matters that constantly occupy
even those who deny its existence

It is, for Boccaccio, sublime in its effects

it impels the soul to a longing for utterance; it
brings forth strange and unheard-of creations of
the mind; it arranges these meditations in a fixed
order, adorns the whole composition with unusual
interweaving of words and thoughts, and thus it
veils truth in a fair and fitting garment of fiction
Objection raised by pseudophilosophers to verse
of this sort:
some things, though naturally clear perhaps, are so
veiled by the artists skill that scarcely anyone could by
mental effort derive sense from them
Boccacios reply:
First, he claim that when things perfectly clear seem
obscure, it is the beholders fault
He also admits that some poems are indeed obscure,
Yet not by this token is it fair to condemn them; for
surely it is not one of the poets various functions to rip
up and lay bare the meaning which lies hidden in his
inventions. Rather where matters truly solemn and
memorable are too much exposed, it is his office by
every effort to protect as well as he can and remove
them from the gaze of the irreverent, that they cheapen
not by too common familiarity. So when he discharges
this duty and does it ingeniously, the poet earns
commendation, not anathema
Moreover: Surely no one can believe that
poets invidiously veil the truth with
fiction, either to deprive the reader of the
hidden sense, or to appear the more
clever; but rather to make truths which
would otherwise cheapen by exposure the
object of strong intellectual effort and
various interpretation, that in ultimate
discovery they shall be more precious
Such majesty and dignity are not intended
to hinder those who wish to understand,
but rather propose a delightful task, and
are designed to enhance the readers
pleasure and support his memory. What
we acquire with difficulty and keep with
care is always the dearer to us.
If their minds are dull, let them not
blame the poets but their own sloth.
Let them not keep up a silly howl
against those whose lives and actions
contrast most favorably with their
own.
Also, poetry for Baccaccio can arms kinds,
marshal them for war, launch whole fleets
from their docks, nay, counterfeit sky, land,
sea, adorn young maidens with flowery
garlands, portray human characters in its
various phases, awake the idle, stimulate
the dull, restrain the rash, subdue the
criminal, and distinguish the excellent men
with their proper meed of praise.
But I repeat my advice to those who would
appreciate poetry, and unwind its difficult
involutions. You must read, you must perverse,
you must sit up nights, you must inquire, and
exert the utmost power of your mind. If one way
does not lead to the desired meaning, take
another; if obstacles arises, then still another;
until, if your strength holds out, you will find that
clear which at first looked dark. For we are
forbidden by divine command to give that which
is holy to dogs, or cast pearls among swines.