As Etimologias de Giovanni Boccaccio

Abstract

Following the precept of the Middle Age about “nomina sunt consequentia rerum”, Boccaccio named his works with etymological meanings, especially from Greek, sometimes created by himself. The name of some characters also had certain etymologies. Among the numerous cases presented by the author of the Decameron there is one to our interest: the origin of the word “poet”, demonstrated by Boccaccio in some of his post decameronian works: Genealogia deorum gentilium, Trattatello in laude di Dante and Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante. As it is possible to see in this article, Boccaccio proposed more than one etymology to “poet”, probably because of the Christian polemic who judge poetry contrary to the truth, so that poet, who was a “maker of fables”, was considered a liar. Boccaccio, contesting this statement, defends the place of the poet in the society of his time, showing the necessity of poetry to humanity