to treat simply as pious fraud, without however actually committing himself to that opinion. " No monk is required to tell thee of the shortness and precariousness of human life. Of the advice received accept what is good ; aban don worldly cares, conquer thy passions, and reform thy soul and life of degraded habits. But do not give up the studies which are the true food of a healthy mind." Boccaccio seems to have acted on this valuable advice. His later works, although written in Latin and scientific in character, are by no means of a religious kind. It seems, however, that his entering the church in 1362 is connected with the events just related.
In 13G3 Boccaccio went on a visit to Naples to the eneschal Acciajuoli (the same Florentine who had in 1344 persuaded the elder Boccaccio to permit his son s return to Naples), who commissioned him to write the story of his deeds of valour. On his arrival, however, the poet was treated with shameful neglect, and revenged himself by denying the possibility of relating any valorous deeds for want of their existence. This declaration, it must be con fessed, came somewhat late, bnt it was provoked by a silly attack on the poet himself by one of the seneschal s indis creet friends.
During the next ten years Boccaccio led an unsettled life, residing chiefly at Florence or Certaldo, but frequently leaving his home on visits to Petrarch and other friends, and on various diplomatic errands in the service of the Republic. He seems to have been poor, having spent large sums in the purchase of books, but his independent spirit rejected the numerous splendid offers of hospitality made to him by friends and admirers. During this period he wrote four important Latin works De Genealogia Deorum libriXV., a compendium of mythological knowledge full of deep learning ; De Montium, Silvarum, Lacuum, et Marlum nominibus liber, a treatise on ancient geography; and two historical books De Casibus Virorum et Femin- arum Illustrium libri IX., interesting to the English reader as the original of John Lydgate s Fall of Princes ; and De Claris Mulicribus. To the list of his works ought to be added II Ninfale Fiesolano, a beautiful love-story in verse, and II Corlaccio ossia II Labcrinto d Amore, a coarse satire on a Florentine widow who had jilted the poet, written about 1355, not to mention many eclogues in Latin and miscellaneous Rime in Italian (the latter collected by his biographer Count Baldelli in 1802).
In 1373 we find Boccaccio again settled at Certaldo. Here he was attacked by a terrible disease which brought him to the verge of death, and from the consequences of which he never quite recovered. But sickness could not subdue his intellectual vigour. When the Florentines established a chair for the explanation of the Divina Commedia in their university, and offered it to Boccaccio, the senescent poet at once undertook the arduous duty. He delivered his first lecture on the 23d of October 1373. The commentary on part of the Inferno, already alluded to, bears witness of his unabated power of intellect. In 1374 the news of the loss of his dearest friend Petrarch reached Boccaccio, and from this blow he may be said to have never recovered. Almost his dying efforts were devoted to the memory of bis friend ; urgently he entreated Petrarch s son-in-law to arrange the publication of the deceased poet s Latin epic Africa, a work of which the author had been far more proud than of his immortal sonnets to Laura.
In his last will Boccaccio left his library to his father confessor, and after his decease to the convent of Santo Spirito in Florence. His small property he bequeathed to his brother Jacopo. His own natural children had died before him. He himself died on the 21st of December 1375 at Certaldo, and was buried in the church of SS. -BOG Jacopo e Filippo of that town. On his tombstone was engraved the epitaph composed by himself shortly before his death. It is calm and dignified, worthy indeed of a great life with a great purpose. These are the lines:—
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" Hae sub mole jacent cineres ac ossa Joannis ; Mens sedet ante Deum, meritis ornata laborum Mortalis vita;. Genitor Boccaccius illi ; 1 atria Certaldum ; studiurn fuit alma po<>s5 "
A complete edition of Boccaccio s Italian writings, in 17 vols., has been published by Moutier (Florence, 1834). The life of Boccaccio has been written by Tirabosehi, Mazzuchelli, Count Bal delli (Vita di Boccaccio, Florence, 1806), and others. The first printed edition of the Decameron is "without date, place, or printer s name ; but it is believed to belong to the year 1469 or 1470, and to have been printed at Florence. Besides this, Baldelli mentions eleven editions during the loth century. The entire number of editions by far exceeds a hundred. A curious expurgated edition, authorized by the Pope, appeared at Florence, 1573. Here, how ever, the grossest indecencies remain, the chief alteration being the change of the improper personages from priests and monks into laymen. The best old edition is that of Florence, 1527. Of modern reprints, that by Forfoni (Florence, 1857) deserves mention. Manni has written a Storia del Decamerone (1742), and a German scholar, M. Landau, has published (Vienna, 1869) a valuable investi gation of the sources of the Decameron. An interesting English translation of the work appeared in 1624, under the title The Model of Mirth, Wit, Eloquence, and Conversation.
(f. h.)
BOCCALINI, Teajano, an Italian satirist, was born at Loretto in 1556. The son of an architect, he himself adopted that profession, and it appears that he commenced late in life to apply to literary pursuits. Pursuing his studies at Rome, he had the honour of teaching Bentivoglio, and acquired the friendship of the cardinals Gaetano and Borghesi, as well as of other distinguished personages. By their influence he obtained various posts, and was even appointed by Gregory XIII. governor of Benevento in the states of the church. Here, however, he seems to have acted imprudently, and he was soon recalled to Rome, where he shortly afterwards composed his most important work, the Eagguagli di Parnaso, in which Apollo is repre sented as receiving the complaints of all who present themselves, and distributing justice according to the merits of each particular case. The book is full of light and fantastic satire on the actions and writings of his eminent contemporaries, and some of its happier hits are among the hackneyed felicities of literature. To escape, it is said, from the hostility of those whom his shafts had wounded, he returned to Venice, and there, according to the register in the parochial church of Sta Maria Formosa, died of colic, accompanied with fever, on the 16th of November 1613. It was asserted, indeed, by contemporary writers that he had been beaten to death with sand-bags by a band of Spanish bravadoes, but the story seems without foundation. At the same time, it is evident from the Pietra del Paragone, which appeared after his death in 1615, that whatever the feelings of the Spaniards towards him, he cherished against them feelings of the bitterest hostility. The only Government, indeed, which is exempt from his attacks is that of Venice, a city for which ho seems to have had a special affection. The Raggiiagli, which w T as first printed in 1612, has frequently been re- published ; but its popularity seems exceeded by that of the Pietra, which has been translated into French, German, English, and Latin. The English translator was Henry earl of Monmouth, and the title of his version, The Politicise Touchstone, London, 1674. Another posthu mous publication of Boccalini was his Cornmentarii sopra Cornelio Tacito, Geneva, 1669, which ought rather to be called observations than commentaries, and has not done much for his fame. Many of his manuscripts are pre served still unprinted in various Italian libraries. (See Mazzuchelli s Scrittori d Italia.)
