Human compassion

Tis humane to have compassion on the afflicted; and as it shews well in all, so it is especially demanded of those who have had need of comfort and have found it in others: among whom, if any had ever need thereof or found it precious or delectable, I may be numbered.

Here he stands. In the niche in the courtyard of Galleria degli Uffizi : the statue of Giovanni Boccaccio. On his head a laurel crown; the symbol of triumph. The words about the importance of "human compassion" mark the opening of his most famous work, the Decameron.

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, in Certaldo, a small town in Tuscany. He was raised in a mercantile family in Florence that moved to Napels when Boccaccio was 14 years old.

It was during his residence in Naples, the city of art and culture, that Boccaccio realized he wanted to dedicate his life to literature. In this period, he wrote his first texts, like La caccia di Diana, Il Filostrato and la Teseide.

When the bank his father worked for went bankrupt, Boccaccio moved back to Florence, where he wrote various works, including L’elegia di Madonna Fiammetta. Fiammetta is a recurring character in Boccaccio’s works; she’s a young Neapolitan woman based on Maria d’Aquino (the married daughter of King Robert the Wise), Boccaccio’s impossible love.

In 1348, the plague broke out in Florence. Boccaccio loses his father and starts composing his masterpiece, the Decameron.