THE GEOFFREY CHAUCER PAGE – Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375).

Oxford: Fletcher, 1774–81) and William Hazlitt, Lectures on the English poets: delivered at the Surrey Institution (first published London: Taylor and Hessey, 1818): both extracted in Brewer 1995, pp. 226–30 (p.227) and 272–83 (p.

^ Thomas Warton, The history of English poetry, from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth century (first published London: J.

No destination is given, but even if this does represent a trip to Milan, he would have missed not only the wedding, but also Petrarch, who had returned to Pavia on 3 July. Rossiter, in his 2010 book on Chaucer and Petrarch argues that the key evidence supporting a visit to the continent in this year is a warrant permitting Chaucer to pass at Dover, dated 17 July. This view today, however, is far from universally accepted.

They believe it plausible that Chaucer not only met Petrarch at this wedding but also Boccaccio. Milan 1368: The wedding of the Duke of Clarence and Violante Visconti

During this Italian business trip for the king to arrange for a settlement of Genoese merchants these scholars say it is likely that sometime in 1373 Chaucer made contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio. He went with Sir James de Provan and John de Mari, eminent merchants hired by the king, and some soldiers and servants. There are government records that show Chaucer was absent from England visiting Genoa and Florence from December 1372 until the middle of 1373. The last tale of Boccaccio's Decameron became Petrarch's 'De Patientia Griseldis', which later became Chaucer's Clerk's Tale.

Boccaccio tales