Modern day entertainment usually consists of catching the latest movie, surfing the Internet or plopping in front of the TV for the latest episode of "Survivor." But does the average American realize where the framework for their favorite shows came from? Great works of literature have always influenced modern writings, but one piece in particular that has influenced books, films and especially TV - even reality shows - is Boccaccio's Decameron.
             Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313 in Italy (Boccaccio 1), well before one of our most famous storytellers, William Shakespeare. He attempted training for several occupations, such as becoming a merchant and a lawyer, before realizing his calling was for literature (Norton 1963). He was drawn to the circle of writers and scholars of the time and composed his first essays at about age 21, in 1332.
             During his life, Boccaccio experienced wars, political "skirmishes (History 1)," Church and aristocratic conflict, class struggle, economic and social depression, and plague (1). He was also lucky in that he experienced such renowned writers of his time such as Petrarch and Dante, becoming strongly influenced by them. Boccaccio, along with Petrarch, not only wrote but also involved himself in revivals of classic literature (McGailliard 1963). He produced a poem called Teseida which was the first vernacular, or "common language" version of a classic epic, and sponsored the first translation of Homer from Greek into Latin (1963). It is even speculated that he met Chaucer (Boccaccio2 1), whose Canterbury Tales are also read even today. Chaucer even drew from Boccaccio's works for his own (1).
             Boccaccio's most famous work, to which modern writers still look, is the Decameron. The collection was authored between the years of 1350 and 1353 (Norton 1963) when the Black Death spread like wildfire throughout Italy, killing about one-third of the population (Boccaccio 1); among ...