SOURCE: Bergin, Thomas G. “An Introduction to Boccaccio.” In Giovanni Boccaccio:“The Decameron,” A New Translation, 21 Novelle, Contemporary Reactions, Modern Criticism, translated and edited by Mark Musa and Peter E. Bondanella, pp. 151-71. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1977.

In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1975, Bergin reviews Boccaccio's career and reflects on the historical and environmental foundations of the Decameron, characterizing it as a work that conveys the solace that can be provided by art in the face of intolerable reality.

Italian literature is built firmly and enduringly on the great triangular base of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio. These are figures of such authority and magnetism as not only to have affected the course of Italian letters but to have left as well visible traces of their inspiration and example on the thought and creative fancy of the Western world. Thinking of any one...