Similarities of purpose between the Proem of the Decameron and the opening sonnet of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta have been noticed by several scholars. Students of Boccaccio and Petrarch are also becoming increasingly aware that the former was willing to criticize his friend, as he did when Petrarch chose to accept Visconti patronage in Milan, the great enemy of Florence.The Proem of the Decameron, however, has not hitherto elicited comment as a text where such friendly criticism, at least of Petrarch’s poetic persona in the RVF, might be found. The present essay suggests that Boccaccio’s famous address in the Proem to fearful, lovesick and housebound women pertains as much to that Petrarcan persona as it does to those vaghe donne. Although it refers to and engages with the important debate on Boccaccio’s attitudes towards real women, the essay explores the possibility that the Decameron’s Proem slyly hints (in a way that is reinforced by the story collection’s Introduction) that the Canzoniere reveals a male poet who is himself “unmanned” by his excessive lovesickness and pursuit of solitude.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Grossi, J., (2025), "Anti-Petrarchism in the Decameron’s Proem and Introduction", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Quaderni d'italianistica

Original publication: Grossi, Joseph. "Anti-Petrarchism in the Decameron’s Proem and Introduction." Quaderni d'italianistica 33 (2): 2013. 5-26. DOI: 10.33137/q.i..v33i2.19416. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Quaderni d'italianistica. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Quaderni d'italianistica under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.