Giovanni Boccaccio: Poet in Dark Times

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) is celebrated as a forerunner of the Renaissance and achieved worldwide fame with the Decameron. His life unfolded against a backdrop of pandemic, climate upheaval, banking crisis, and a political drift toward oligarchy - he was the seismograph of all these tremors.

Franziska Meier, literary scholar and member of the Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, portrays Boccaccio in her biography Dichter in schwarzen Zeiten (C.H. Beck 2025) as a restless figure at the threshold of the modern age. She discusses the book with Jonas Maatsch, Secretary General of the same academy.

The Dutch vocal ensemble Tempera Mente will accompany the evening with live music from the period.