De casibus virorum illustrium


De casibus virorum illustrium is a work of 56 biographies in Latin prose composed by the Florentine poet Giovanni Boccaccio of Certaldo in the form of moral stories of the falls of famous people, similar to his work of 106 biographies De Mulieribus Claris.

Overview

De casibus is an encyclopedia of historical biography and a part of the classical tradition of historiography. It deals with the fortunes and calamities of famous people starting with the biblical Adam, going to mythological and ancient people, then to people of Boccaccio's own time in the fourteenth century. The work was so successful it spawned what has been referred to as the De casibus tradition, influencing many other famous authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Lydgate, and Laurent de Premierfait. De casibus also inspired character figures in works like The Canterbury Tales, The Monk's Tale, the Fall of Princes, Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes, and Caida de principles, and A Mirror for Magistrates.

Development

Boccaccio wrote the core of his work from about 1355 to 1360 with revisions and modifications up to 1374. For almost four hundred years this work was the better known of his material. The forceful written periodic Latin work was far more widely read then the now famous vernacular Tuscan/Italian tales of Decameron. The Renaissance period saw the secular biography development which was spearheaded partly by the success of this work being a stimulus and driving force of the new biography-moral genre.

Purpose

Boccaccio's perspective focuses on the disastro awaiting all who are too favoured by luck and on the inevitable catastrophes awaiting those with great fortune. He offers a moral commentary on overcoming misfortune by adhering to virtue through a moral God's world. Here the monastic chronicle tradition combines with the classical ideas of Senecan tragedy.

Content

De casibus stems from the tradition of exemplary literature works about famous people. It showed with the lives of these people that it was not only biographies, but also snapshots of their moral virtues. Boccaccio relates biographies of famous people who were at the height of happiness and fell to misfortune when they least expected it. This sad event is sometimes referred to as a "de casibus tragedy" after this work. William Shakespeare created characters based on this phenomenon, as did Christopher Marlowe.

Lives recounted

In order, directly translated from Latin.
Only the historical figures whose names feature in chapter titles are reported; the total number is far greater.

Book One

Book Two

Book Three

Book Four

Book Five

Book Six

Book Seven

Book Eight

Book Nine

Primary sources

  • Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. Vittore Branca
  • The Fates of Illustrious Men, trans. Louis Brewer Hall
  • Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes translated from Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustribus by Laurent de Premierfait

Secondary sources

  • Miscellanea di Studi e Ricerche sul Quattrecento francese, ed., F. Simone
  • Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes ed., Patricia May Gathercole, Chapel Hill - University of North Carolina
  • Çoban, R. V.. The Manzikert Battle and Sultan Alp Arslan with European Perspective in the 15st Century in the Miniatures of Giovanni Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium"s 226 and 232. French Manuscripts in Bibliothèque Nationale de France. S. Karakaya ve V. Baydar, in 2nd International Muş Symposium Articles Book. Muş: Muş Alparslan University.

Related references

  • Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies
  • Egan, Margarita trans. The Vidas of the Troubadours, New York, Garland
  • Joinville, Jehan de Vie de saint Louis, ed., Noel L. Corbert. Sherbrook Naoman
  • Richards, Earl Jeffery trans. The Book of the City of Ladies, New York, Persea
  • Lalande, Denis, ed., Le livre des fais du bon messiere Jehan le Maingre, dit Bouciquaut Geneva: Droz