The Medieval Model: Boccacio’s “Decameron” Between History and Actuality

Abstract: In a world where all is “liquidity” and contingency, we should learn a new approach to reality from the literary perspective of Boccaccio. He was, as Dante and Thomas Aquinas, a builder of systems, in which each part of the world became a new point of view on religion, economy, society. Does he speak from the past or does he look at our fears and hopes from the future?

This lecture has been made possible by the Jay C. and Ruth Halls Visiting Scholar Fund, Department of French and Italian, Department of History, Comparative Literature Program, and the Graduate Association of French and Italian Students (GAFIS).