Influence of Italian humanism on Chaucer

The works of Geoffrey Chaucer, such as the Canterbury Tales, frequently borrow from the works of the Italian humanists Petrarch and Boccaccio.[1]

For centuries, some scholars have further proposed that Chaucer might actually have met Petrarch and/or Boccaccio in person during a trip to Italy.[2] Notable proponents of Chaucer–Boccaccio and/or Chaucer–Petrarch contact include F. J. Furnivall (1825–1910),[3] W. W. Skeat (1835–1912),[4] and Donald Howard (1927–1987).[1] More recent scholarship tends to discount these speculations. As Leonard Koff remarks, the notion that Chaucer ever met Boccaccio in person is "a 'tydyng' worthy of Chaucer himself"[1] — alluding to the mingled true and false tidings that fill Chaucer's House of Fame.

Chaucer's trips to mainland Europe

There are government records that show Chaucer was absent from England visiting Genoa and Florence from December 1372 until the middle of 1373.[4][5] He went with Sir James de Provan and John de Mari, eminent merchants hired by the king, and some soldiers and servants.[5][6] 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.[4][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Milan 1368: The wedding of the Duke of Clarence and Violante Visconti

They believe it plausible that Chaucer not only met Petrarch at this wedding but also Boccaccio.[5][9] This view today, however, is far from universally accepted. William T. 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. 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.[13]

Chaucer's works

The Canterbury Tales

The Knight's Tale

Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" is a condensed version of Boccaccio's Teseida.[14] Chaucer changes some scenes and deepens the philosophy of the original. In the tale, the disguised Arcite takes the name "Philostrate,"[15] which may be an allusion to Boccaccio's Il Filostrato.

The Clerk's Tale

Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale" tells the story of Griselda. This story had previously appeared as the final tale of Boccaccio's Decameron. Petrarch then translated Boccaccio's story from Italian into Latin.[16] In the "Clerk's Prologue," the (fictional) Clerk himself claims to have traveled to Padua and there met Petrarch, who told him the story.

I wol yow telle a tale, which that I
Lerned at Padwe of a worthy clerk,
As preved by his wordes and his werk.
He is now deed, and nayled in his cheste;
I prey to God so yeve his soule reste.
Fraunceys Petrark, the lauriat poete,
Highte this clerk, whos rethorike sweete
Enlumyned al Ytaille of poetrie,
As Lynyan dide of philosophie [...]
[...] this worthy man,
That taughte me this tale as I bigan [...][17]

Of course, that Chaucer made his fictional Clerk travel to Padua and meet Petrarch is no evidence that Chaucer himself (in real life) ever made such a trip.

The Shipman's Tale

The "Shipman's Tale" has essentially the same plot as Decameron 8.1.[18] Both tales concern a merchant whose wife, unknown to him, is inclined to sell her sexual favors. The merchant's friend borrows money from him, ostensibly to invest; but then gives the money to the wife in exchange for her favors instead. Finally, when the merchant asks to be repaid, the friend tells him that he has already paid back the money, and that he should ask his wife for it.

In the Decameron version of the tale, the friend is a German soldier visiting Milan; the wife asks bluntly for money in exchange for sex; and at the end of the tale the wife pays the money back to her husband. Chaucer's version is set in France; the friend is a traveling monk; the merchant's wife obliquely requests money "to repay a loan"; and at the end of the tale the wife explains to her husband that she has already spent the money she was given, and repays the merchant in bed instead. Despite these minor differences, Decameron 8.1 is "the closest analogue" known to the Shipman's Tale.[18] Decameron 8.1 was also the basis of Giovanni Sercambi's novella De avaritia et luzuria, "the only other extant analogue that Chaucer could have known."[18]

Troilus and Creseyde

Boccaccio's Filostrato is the major source of Chaucer's Troilus and Creseyde.

The Legend of Good Women

Chaucer followed the general plan of Boccaccio's work On Famous Women in The Legend of Good Women.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]

References

  1. ^ a b c Leonard Michael Koff (2000). "Introduction". In Leonard Michael Koff; Brenda Deen Schildgen (eds.). The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 0-8386-3800-7.
  2. ^ Thomas Warton, The history of English poetry, from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth century (first published London: J. Dodsley, etc.; 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. 277)
  3. ^ F. J. Furnivall; Edmund Brock; W. A. Clouston, eds. (1868). Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. London: The Chaucer Society. p. 150.
  4. ^ a b c Skeat 1900, p. 454 (Scholars being Professor Walter William Skeat and Dr. Furnivall)
  5. ^ a b c Gray 2003, p. 251
  6. ^ Howard 1987, p. 169
  7. ^ Howard 1987, p. 191
  8. ^ Crow, Martin M. et al, Chaucer Life-records.
  9. ^ a b Thomas Warton, The history of English poetry, from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth century (first published London: J. Dodsley, etc.; Oxford: Fletcher, 1774–81) extracted in Brewer 1995, pp. 226–30 (p.227))
  10. ^ Howard 1987, p. 189
  11. ^ Curry 1869, pp. 157, 158, 159
  12. ^ Warton 1871, p. 296 (footnotes: Froissart was also present.)
  13. ^ Rossiter 2010
  14. ^ Howard 1987, p. 195
  15. ^ Geoffrey Chaucer. "The Knight's Tale". The Canterbury Tales. Line 570. And Philostrate he seyde that he highte.
  16. ^ Petrarch (1898). "[On] The Story of Griselda". The First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters. Translated by James Harvey Robinson. New York: G. P. Putnam.
  17. ^ Geoffrey Chaucer. Sinan Kökbugur (ed.). "The Clerk's Prologue". Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  18. ^ a b c Peter G. Beidler (2000). "Just Say Yes, Chaucer Knew the Decameron; Or, Bringing the Shipman's Tale Out of Limbo". In Leonard Michael Koff; Brenda Deen Schildgen (eds.). The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question. Associated University Presses. pp. 38 ff. ISBN 0-8386-3800-7.
  19. ^ Skeat (1906), p. 182
  20. ^ Skeat (1900), p. xxviii
  21. ^ Gray 2003, p. 58
  22. ^ Skeat (1900), p. xxix
  23. ^ "Boccaccio and Chaucer" by Peter Borghesi, Bologna, 1912
  24. ^ Howard 1987, p. 187
  25. ^ Gray 2003, p. 57
  26. ^ Ames 1900, p. 99
  27. ^ Gray 2003, p. 376
  28. ^ Howard 1987, p. 282

Sources

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