Boccaccio is here to stay

Nowadays, the Uffizi Gallery displays the statues of men who were important for Italian culture. In its original form however, the niches were empty; they were designed in 1560 by the Tuscan artist Giorgio VasariSee the Uffizi website](https://www.virtualuffizi.com/giorgio-vasari%2C-the-uffizi%27s-father.html), by order of Cosimo I de’ Medici, to house the offices of Florentine magistrates.

From the middle of the 19th century onward, the niches were filled with statues of famous Italian poets, artists and historians. This was an era in which national pride characterized society, and the citizens of Florence wanted to celebrate their geniuses and heroes. In accordance with this attitude, the Florentine printer Vincenzo Batelli started the project of completing the Uffizi Gallery with the statues of Italy’s most famous men. Boccaccio is, of course, one of them.

The statue of Giovanni Boccaccio, crowned with a laurel wreath while holding a book. His position in the middle of Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca emphasizes the fact that he is considered one of the most important writers of Italian literature and that his fame continues to this day.