--- dudes and dudettes  ---    Heed Giovanni Boccaccio,  (b. 1313, Paris, Fr.--d. Dec. 21, 1375, Certaldo, Tuscany [Italy]), Italian poet and scholar, best remembered as the author of the earthy tales in the Decameron. With Petrarch he laid the foundations for the humanism of the Renaissance and raised vernacular literature to the level and status of the classics of antiquity. 

Around 1348-53 Boccaccio composed the Decameron in the form in which it is read today. Its a masterpiece of broad sweep in range and tragic and comic views of life. It is considered a  perfect example of Italian classical prose, and its influence on Renaissance literature throughout Europe was enormous. 

The Decameron begins with the flight of 10 young people (7 women and 3 men) from plague-stricken Florence in 1348. They retire to a rich, well-watered countryside, where, in the course of a fortnight, each member of the party has a turn as king or queen over the others, deciding in detail how their day shall be spent and directing their leisurely walks, their outdoor conversations, their dances and songs, and, above all, their alternate storytelling. This storytelling occupies 10 days of the fortnight (the rest being set aside for personal adornment or for religious devotions); hence the title of the book itself, Decameron, or "Ten Days' Work.".  Each of the days, moreover, ends with a canzone (song) for dancing sung by one of the storytellers, and these canzoni include some of Boccaccio's finest lyric poetry.    (adapted from the britanica)

The Decameron (Penguin Classics) 

Giovanni Boccaccio, et al / Paperback / Published 1996

Chaucer, Boccacio, and the Debate of Love : A Comparative Study of the Decameron and the Canterbury Tales

N. S. Thompson / Hardcover / Published 1996

Indebtedness of Chaucer's Works to the Italian Works of Boccacio

Hubertis Cummings, yes (Illustrator) / Library Binding

 

Merchant Writers of the Renaissance : From Boccacio to Lorenzo De' Medici

Vittore Branca(Editor), Murtha Baca (Editor) / Paperback / Published 1999