Born 1313 in or near Florence. Contemporary of Petrarch. He wrote both in Latin and in Italian, and his medieval reputation was based at least as much on the Latin works as on the Italian ones. Italian works include: the prose romance Filocolo, the verse romance Filostrato (source of Chaucer's Trolius and Crisede), the verse epic Teseida (source of Chaucer's Knight's Tale), the allegorical poem Amroroso Visione, and the romance Fiammetta. Latin works include the following, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (On the Fates of Famous Men, De Claribus Mulieribus (Of Famous Women), De Genealogiis Deorum Gentilum (The Genealogies of the Pagan Gods).
The idea is that a group of ten noblepeople, 7 women and 3 men, has left Florence to escape the plague (1348!), and taken up temporary residence in the country. They agree to appoint a "king" for each day and to follow his or her directions, and they further agree that they will each tell a story each day. They spend ten days in the country, and tell 100 stories. On the tenth day, the topic is supposed to be "those who who have performed liberal or munificent deeds, whether in the cause of love or otherwise." And the last story of all is the story of Griselda, told by Dioneo. The story of Griselda may have folktale origins, but that need not concern us. It was translated into Latin by Petrarch, who moralized it as an example of Christian patience, and it became immensely popular in the later Middle Ages, being translated into French, English as Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, into German three or four times, etc.
Our study, of course, must focus on the tale itself, not on its literary descendants and not on its place in the overall framework of the Decamerone.