It was at this branch that the young Boccaccio began his mercantile apprenticeship. He remained in Naples for some 15 years; the period was in many ways the most exciting, formative, and happy time of his life. Because of his father’s position, the young man had access to the full splendor of the Angevin court, including its regal libraries and prominent, learned guests. He appears to have abandoned his economic training early to make way for an emerging passion for literature and vocation as a writer. Although he also studied canon law at the university in the early 1330s, by the second half of that decade he was producing his own literary creations, mythological and classical romances of the type in vogue at court during his day. Many of these reflect a courtly love infatuation with Maria d’Aquino, the daughter of King Robert of Anjou, who became known as Fiammetta (“little flame”) in Boccaccio’s literary universe. The writer’s rose-tinted youth came to an abrupt end in the 1340s: the failure of the Bardi bank forced a return to Florence where his father’s subsequent death left him in charge of the family.
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