Giovanni Boccaccio and the Jurists of the Renaissance

Abstract

This article studies the reception of the works by Boccaccio in the Jurists of the Renaissance, from 1400 to 1640. This topic never has been systematically studied and here a general prospective is proposed by searching quotations to Boccaccio into the legal works. The article attempts to answer four questions: 1) What jurists quoted Boccaccio?; 2) What orientation did these Jurists have?; 3) In what kind of works did the Jurists mention Boccaccio?; 4) Which works of Boccaccio were most cited by Jurists? After the examination of more than a five hundred printed legal works from incunabula to 1640, a chronological and thematic classification is proposed, in order to show the multifaceted reception of Boccaccio among Jurists.