The Book of Theseus

work by Boccaccio

Also known as: “Teseida delle nozze di Emilia”, “Teseide”, “Thesiad of the Nuptials of Emilia”

Learn about this topic in these articles:

In Giovanni Boccaccio: Early works
The Teseida (probably begun in Naples and finished in Florence, 1340–41) is an ambitious epic of 12 cantos in ottava rima in which the wars of Theseus serve as a background for the love of two friends, Arcita and Palemone, for the same woman, Emilia; Arcita…
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In humanism: Giovanni Boccaccio
His Teseida (1340–41) was the first classical epic to have been written in the vernacular, and it influenced the Italian epics of Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso. His De genealogia deorum gentilium (“On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles,” written c. 1350–75), a scholarly…
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In Italian literature: Boccaccio (1313–75)
…the Nuptials of Emilia or The Book of Theseus). His Il ninfale d’Ameto, or, more properly, Commedia delle ninfe fiorentine (1341–42; “Comedy of the Florentine Nymphs”; Eng. trans. L’Ameto), a novel written in prose and verse, and his Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta (c. 1343; The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta or…
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