Italy · 700th birthday of Giovanni Boccaccio

Issue date25 Jul 2013

Total mintage10,000,000

EU maximum10,000,000

Editions2

Edge lettering2 ★ × 6, alternately upright/inverted

Inscription1313 / 2013 / 700° ANNIVERSARIO DELLA NASCITA DI / GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO / Fior di conio / Special Uncirculated

DesignerRoberto Mauri

mintInstituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, Roma

Issue occasion

The commemorative coin marks the 700th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni BOCCACCIO. The design shows his head turned to the right in three-quarter profile, based on a fresco by Andrea del Castagno from around 1450, located in the Uffizi Gallery (Galerie der Uffizien) in Florence. Below it, the inscription “BOCCACCIO 1313 2013” is arranged in a semicircle.

The design

The coin design depicts the head of Giovanni BOCCACCIO in three-quarter profile, facing right, taken from the fresco by Andrea del Castagno dating from c. 1450 (Florence, Uffizi Gallery); beneath it, in a semicircle, “BOCCACCIO 1313 2013”, and on the right the overlapping letters R (monogram of the Rome Mint), RI (monogram of the Italian Republic) and m (monogram of the engraver Mauri).

The outer ring of the coin features the twelve stars of the European flag.

Background on the topic

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet and scholar of the 14th century. He spent extended periods in Naples, where he came into contact with the courtly culture of the Angevin kingdom. Later, he lived mainly in Florence and Certaldo. Together with Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca, he is regarded as one of the authors who gave literary prestige to the Italian vernacular.

His best-known work is the “Decameron” (“Decamerone”). Its framing narrative takes place during the plague of 1348: seven young women and three young men leave Florence and retreat to a country estate. There, over ten days, they tell a total of one hundred novellas. The stories deal, among other things, with love, social advancement, deception, fortune and human ingenuity. Clergy, merchants, nobles and members of other social groups frequently appear in comic or critical situations. The work thus conveys a multifaceted picture of urban society in the Late Middle Ages.

Boccaccio also wrote poetry, biographies and scholarly works in Italian and Latin. He devoted himself intensively to ancient literature and mythology and was part of the early Italian humanist movement. He and Petrarca were connected by a long-standing friendship and an exchange of ideas about literature and ancient manuscripts. Boccaccio also played a role in the study of Dante: he wrote a biography of the poet and gave public lectures in Florence on the “Divine Comedy” (“Göttliche Komödie”).

The portrait used as the model for the image originally belonged to a fresco cycle of famous men and women in a villa near Florence. Boccaccio was depicted there together with other historical and literary figures. The image is not a portrait created during his lifetime, but a later, idealised representation.

The choice of Boccaccio for an Italian commemorative coin refers to his position in the history of Italian literature. The “Decameron” (“Decamerone”), in particular, shaped the European novella tradition and the development of Italian prose.