Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: sesses, in fact, a secret charm, as certain viands, which have failed to take a moulded shape, although they are lacking in form, preserve nevertheless their taste and odor. May he continue with the aid of Heaven, and may he give us Homer, who has been lost to us ! In asking of me the volume of Plato which I have with me, and which escaped the fire at my trans-Alpine country house, you give me proof of your ardor, and I shall hold this book at your disposal, whenever the time shall come. I wish to aid with all my power such noble enterprises. But beware lest it should be unbecoming to unite in one bundle these two great princes of Greece, lest the weight of these two spirits shoulcPoverwhelm mortal shoulders. Iet your messenger undertake, with God's aid, one of the two, and first him who has written many centuries before the other. Farewell. (Milan, Aug. 18, 1360.) GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO. Born in 1313, place of birth unknown ; by some thought to be Paris, by others Certaldo. Was apprenticed for six years to a merchant, and for six years attempted the study of canon law. 1333 went to Naples on mercantile business, attached himself to the court of Robert of Anjou, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. Neapolitan period, 1333-1350, (except 1341-1344 spent at Florence) ; a period of romantic and poetical production: Filocopo, Teseide, Ameto, L'amorosa Visione, Fiatnetta, and Filostrato. 1350 entered the diplomatic service of the republic; met Petrarch, 1350; became interested in the discovery and preservation of classical manuscripts. Decameron published 1353. 1363-1373, Period of production of I/atin works relating to the study of the classics : De Genealogia Deorum libri XV; De Montium, Silvarum, Lacuum, et Marium nominibus liber: De Casi- bus Virorum et Feminarum Illust...