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Why did Giovanni Boccaccio’s father send him to Naples?
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Giovanni Boccaccio
Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio, detail of a fresco by Andrea del Castagno; in the Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia, Florence.
Giovanni Boccaccio’s father, Boccaccio di Chellino, sent him to Naples no later than 1328 to learn the business trade. His father, a Tuscan merchant, lacked sympathy for his son's literary inclinations and intended for him to work, likely within an office of the Bardi family, who held significant influence over the Neapolitan court through their loans.1