Il Corbaccio

work by Boccaccio

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June 24, 2026

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Il Corbaccio is a satirical work by Giovanni Boccaccio, written between 1354 and 1355. It is a bitter misogynistic text, a departure from Boccaccio's earlier works that often praised women and love. The satire is directed at a widow who had rejected him. This work marked a shift in Boccaccio's writing, leading him to focus more on scholarly pursuits in Latin rather than imaginative creation in Italian.1

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Giovanni Boccaccio
Petrarch and Boccaccio’s mature years
…wrote nothing in Italian except Il Corbaccio (1354–55; a satire on a widow who had jilted him), his late writings on Dante, and perhaps an occasional lyric. Turning instead to Latin, he devoted himself to humanist scholarship rather than to imaginative or poetic creation. His encyclopedic De genealogia deorum gentilium…
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…wrote nothing in Italian except Il Corbaccio (1354–55; a satire on a widow who had jilted him), his late writings on Dante, and perhaps an occasional lyric. Turning instead to Latin, he devoted himself to humanist scholarship rather than to imaginative or poetic creation. His encyclopedic De genealogia deorum gentilium…
Read More