[473] The first German translation of the Decameron, by H. Steinhovel, was printed in 1472, and soon became popular. The translations of the whole Decameron were almost everywhere preceded by those of the story of Griselda, written in Latin by Petrarch.
[474] These Latin writings of Boccaccio have been admirably discussed recently by Schück, Zur Characteristik des ital. Hum. im 14 und 15 Jahrh. Breslau, 1865; and in an article in Fleckeisen and Masius, Jahrbücher fur Phil. und Pädag. bd. xx. (1874).
[475] ‘Poeta,’ even in Dante (Vita Nuova, p. 47), means only the writer of Latin verses, while for Italian the expressions ‘Rimatore, Dicitore per rima,’ are used. It is true that the names and ideas became mixed in course of time.
[476] Petrarch, too, at the height of his fame complained in moments of melancholy that his evil star decreed him to pass his last years among scoundrels (extremi fures). In the imaginary letter to Livy, Epp. Fam. ed. Fracass. lib. xxiv. ep. 8. That Petrarch defended poetry, and how, is well known (comp. Geiger, Petr. 113-117). Besides the enemies who beset him in common with Boccaccio, he had to face the doctors (comp. Invectivæ in Medicum Objurgantem, lib. i. and ii.).
[477] Boccaccio, in a later letter to Jacobus Pizinga (Opere Volgari, vol. xvi.), confines himself more strictly to poetry properly so called. And yet he only recognises as poetry that which treated of antiquity, and ignores the Troubadours.
[478] Petr. Epp. Senil. lib. i. ep. 5.
[479] Boccaccio (Vita di Dante, p. 50): ‘La quale (laurea) non scienza accresce ma è dell’acquistata certissimo testimonio e ornamento.’
[480] Paradiso, xxv. 1 sqq. Boccaccio, Vita di Dante, p. 50. ‘Sopra le fonti di San Giovanni si era disporto di coronare.’ Comp. Paradiso, i. 25.
[481] See Boccaccio’s letter to him in the Opere Volgari, vol. xvi. p. 36: ‘Si præstet Deus, concedente senatu Romuleo.’ ...
[482] Matt. Villani, v. 26. There was a solemn procession on horseback round the city, when the followers of the Emperor, his ‘baroni,’ accompanied the poet. Boccaccio, l. c. Petrarch: Invectivæ contra Med. Præf. See also Epp. Fam. Volgarizzate da Fracassetti, iii. 128. For the speech of Zanobi at the coronation, Friedjung, l. c. 308 sqq. Fazio degli Uberti was also crowned, but it is not known where or by whom.