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Contact between Geoffrey Chaucer and the Italian humanists Petrarch or Boccaccio has been proposed by scholars for centuries. More recent scholarship tends to discount these earlier speculations because of lack of evidence. As Leonard Koff remarks, the story of their meeting is "a 'tydying' worthy of Chaucer himself".

Chaucer's trips to mainland Europe

There are government records that show Chaucer was absent from England visiting Genoa and Florence from December 1372 until the middle of 1373. He went with Sir James de Provan and John de Mari, eminent merchants hired by the king, and some soldiers and servants. During this Italian business trip for the king to arrange for a settlement of Genoese merchants these scholars say it is likely that sometime in 1373 Chaucer made contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio.

Milan 1368: The wedding of the Duke of Clarence and Violante Visconti

They believe it plausible that Chaucer not only met Petrarch at this wedding but also Boccaccio. This view today, however, is far from universally accepted. William T. Rossiter, in his 2010 book on Chaucer and Petrarch argues that the key evidence supporting a visit to the continent in this year is a warrant permitting Chaucer to pass at Dover, dated 17 July. No destination is given, but even if this does represent a trip to Milan, he would have missed not only the wedding, but also Petrarch, who had returned to Pavia on 3 July.

Canterbury Tales

The Clerk's Tale

However, this does not mean necessarily that Chaucer himself met Petrarch.

Other works

The Legend of Good Women

Chaucer followed the general plan of Boccaccio's work On Famous Women in The Legend of Good Women.

Alternative viewpoints

The Knight's Tale uses Boccaccio's Teseida and the Filostrato is the major source of Troilus and Creseyde.

References

1. Thomas Warton, The history of English poetry, from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth century (first published London: J. Dodsley, etc.; Oxford: Fletcher, 1774–81) and William Hazlitt, Lectures on the English poets: delivered at the Surrey Institution (first published London: Taylor and Hessey, 1818): both extracted in Brewer 1995, pp. 226–30 (p.227) and 272–83 (p. 277)
   • Hendrickson 1907, pp. 183–192
   • Rearden 1882, p. 458
   • Skeat 1900, pp. 382, 453, 454, 455
   • Gardner 1999, p. 198
   • Howard 1987, p. 190
   • Gray 2003, p. 56
   • Coulton 1908, p. 42 ...Speght writing in 1598...
   • THE GEOFFREY CHAUCER PAGE – Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) Archived 24 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
2. Koff 11
3. anon, The World of Chaucer 2008
   • Cousin 1910, p. 167
   • Guiney 1908
   • Boitani 1985
   • Coulton 1908, p. 45
4. Skeat 1910
5. ^ Skeat 1900, p. 454 (Scholars being Professor Walter William Skeat and Dr. Furnivall)
6. Coulton 1908, p. 40
7. ^ Gray 2003, p. 251
8. Howard 1987, p. 169
9. Howard 1987, p. 191
10. Crow, Martin M. et al, Chaucer Life-records.
11. ^ Thomas Warton, The history of English poetry, from the close of the eleventh to the commencement of the eighteenth century (first published London: J. Dodsley, etc.; Oxford: Fletcher, 1774–81) extracted in Brewer 1995, pp. 226–30 (p.227))
    • Cook 1916
    • Coulton 1965
12. Howard 1987, p. 189
13. Curry 1869, pp. 157, 158, 159
14. Warton 1871, p. 296 (footnotes: Froissart was also present.)
15. Rossiter 2010
16. Meiklejohn 1887
    • Coulton 1908, p. 41
    • Coulton 1908, p. 44
17. Skeat 1906
18. Ames 1900, p. 98
19. Skeat 1900, pp. 382, 453, 454, 455
20. Skeat 1894, pp. 454–456
21. Skeat (1900), p. xvii
22. ^ Borghesi 1903, p. 20
23. Boccaccio's Decameron
24. Florence Nightengale Jones (1910). Boccaccio and his imitators in German, English, French, Spanish, and Italian literature, The Decameron. The University of Chicago Press – via Internet Archive.
25. Warton 1871, p. 349
26. anon, American Society for the Extension of University Teaching 1898, p. 82
27. Skeat (1906), p. 182
28. Boitani, p. 291
    • Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: The Monk's Tale
    • The Oxford Companion Chaucer (Boccaccio) by Boitani Piero
    • Notes to the Monk's Tale Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
    • Tatlock, p. 164
29. ^ The Chaucer Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 163–165 (Fall, 1989), p. 164; Penn State University Press
30. Liukkonen, Petri. "Petrarch". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 12 March 2010.
31. Boccaccio
32. Wallace, Chaucerian Polity (Bishop)
33. "The Monk's Tale – Middle English". Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
34. "The Monk's Tale – Modern English". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
35. ^ Howard 1987, p. 195
36. Gray 2003, p. 375
37. Skeat (1900), p. xxviii
38. Gray 2003, p. 58
39. Skeat (1900), p. xxix
40. "Boccaccio and Chaucer" by Peter Borghesi, Bologna, 1912
41. Howard 1987, p. 187
42. Gray 2003, p. 57
43. Ames 1900, p. 99
44. Gray 2003, p. 376
45. Howard 1987, p. 282

Sources

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v t e Geoffrey Chaucer
Works	The Canterbury Tales General Prologue The Knight's Tale The Miller's Tale The Reeve's Tale The Cook's Tale The Man of Law's Tale The Wife of Bath's Tale The Friar's Tale The Summoner's Tale The Clerk's Tale The Merchant's Tale The Squire's Tale The Franklin's Tale The Physician's Tale The Pardoner's Tale The Shipman's Tale The Prioress's Tale Sir Thopas The Tale of Melibee The Monk's Tale The Nun's Priest's Tale The Second Nun's Tale The Canon's Yeoman's Tale The Manciple's Tale The Parson's Tale Chaucer's Retraction Other works The Romaunt of the Rose The Book of the Duchess The House of Fame Anelida and Arcite The Parliament of Fowls Boece Troilus and Criseyde The Legend of Good Women A Treatise on the Astrolabe The Complaint of Mars Spurious The Cuckoo and the Nightingale The Complaint of the Black Knight The equatorie of the planetis The Floure and the Leafe Pierce the Ploughman's Crede Jack Upland Tales The Tale of Gamelyn Prologue and Tale of Beryn The Plowman's Tale The Pilgrim's Tale
Language and Texts	Rhyme royal Heroic couplet Manuscript tradition Order of The Canterbury Tales Hengwrt Chaucer Ellesmere Chaucer Harley MS. 7334 Adam Pinkhurst Scribe D John Shirley Geoffrey Spirleng
Related	Chaucer's influence on fifteenth-century Scottish literature Influence of Italian humanism on Chaucer Philippa Roet (wife) Katherine Swynford (wife's sister) Thomas Chaucer (son) Alice de la Pole (granddaughter) A Knight's Tale (2001 film)

• The Canterbury Tales
• Geoffrey Chaucer
• Issues of cultural influence
• Renaissance humanism