Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Boccaccio's stepmom was Margherita de' Mardoli, a relative of Beatrice Portinari. You know, the Beatrice—Dante's great love and purpose for his mystical journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. (Source)
In 1374, Boccaccio published De Claris Mulieribus, ("Of Famous Women"), a biography of 106 historical and mythical women starting with Eve and ending with women of his own day. This was the first biography collection written entirely about women. Boccaccio hoped that the stories of the virtuous women would be an inspiration to his female readers. He wrote this one in Latin. (Source)
The original working title for Woody Allen's "To Rome with Love" was "Bop Decameron." This was considered too obscure even for Italians. Two title changes later (both of which Allen hated) and we have a movie that tells four unrelated stories set in the Eternal City. Related to The Decameron in any way? Well, maybe like a fourth cousin once removed. Allen does use the idea of novelle or short-story-telling as part of his format. (Source)
Boccaccio was a huge fan of Dante, and it was B that suggested that Dante's famous Commedia be re-titled as Divina—the Divine Comedy as we now know it. In the years before he died, he made some extra money giving lectures about the poem. He loved the work so much that he transcribed it by hand more than once. One of the copies, with some illustrations thought to be done by B himself, is now in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, a library in Florence, Italy. Take a look. (Source)
The Decameron has inspired a serious amount of fan fiction. In honor of the 700th anniversary of Boccaccio's birth, Brown University and the Italian consulate held Boccaccio AfterLife Award contest for adapting a Decameron novella into any media. Rumor had it that Boccaccio himself made an appearance at the award ceremony. (Source)