Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375).
After portrait by A. del Castagno.
Giovanni Boccaccio from Tuscany, was an Italian poet and scholar, best remembered as the author of the earthy tales in the Decameron. With Petrarch he laid the foundations for the humanism of renaissance and raised vernacular literature to the level and status of the classics of antiquity. Boccaccio enthusiasm for his immediate predecessors, especially Dante, is one of his characteristics. His Vita di Dante Alighieri and Trattatello in laude di Dante - Little Tractate in Praise of Dante - show his devotion to Dante’s memory.
The illustration on the stamp shows a portrait of Boccaccio, a detail of a fresco by Andrea del Castagno, in the Cenacolo di Sant’ Apollonia, in Florence.
Michel 373, Sassone 303, AFA 319
Date of issue: 1932
Face value: 10 c.
Date created: 22/03/00 11:41:47