De casibus virorum illustrium (On the Fates of Famous Men) is a work of 56 biographies in Latin prose composed by the Florentine poet Giovanni Boccaccio of Certaldo in the form of moral stories of the falls of famous people, similar to his work of 106 biographies De Mulieribus Claris.
Overview De casibus is an encyclopedia of historical biography and a part of the classical tradition of historiography. It deals with the fortunes and calamities of famous people starting with the biblical Adam, going to mythological and ancient people, then to people of Boccaccio's own time in the fourteenth century.History of Tragedy The work was so successful it spawned what has been referred to as the De casibus tradition,Narrative, Authority, and Power: The Medieval Exemplum and the Chaucerian by Larry Scanlon, p. 119, Cambridge University Press (1994), influencing many other famous authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Lydgate, and Laurent de Premierfait.Alan Coates, et al., A Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the Bodleian Library (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 596-617. De casibus also inspired character figures in works like The Canterbury Tales,Chaucer's influences The Monk's Tale,JSTOR: The Mediaeval Setting of Chaucer's Monk's Tale the Fall of Princes (c. 1438),Richard A. Dwyer, "Arthur's Stellification in the Fall of Princes" Philological Quarterly, 57 (1978), pp. 155-171 Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes (c. 1409),The Literary Encyclopedia and Caida de principles (a fifteenth-century Spanish collection), and A Mirror for Magistrates (a very popular sixteenth-century continuation written by William Baldwin and others).Vittorio Zaccaria, Introduzione, in Giovanni Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium volume 9 of Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio under guidance of Pier Giorgio Ricci and Vittorio Zaccaria, ed. Vittore Branca, 12 volumes I Classici Mondadori (Milan:Arnoldo Mondadori editor, 1983)
Development Boccaccio wrote the core of his work from about 1355 to 1360 with revisions and modifications up to 1374. For almost four hundred years this work was the better known of his material. The forceful written periodic Latin work was far more widely read then the now famous vernacular Tuscan/Italian tales of Decameron.Louis Brewer Hall, "Introduction," De casibus illustrium virorum (Gainesville: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1962), v. The Renaissance period saw the secular biography development which was spearheaded partly by the success of this work being a stimulus and driving force of the new biography-moral genre.
Purpose Boccaccio's perspective focuses on the disastro awaiting all who are too favoured by luck and on the inevitable catastrophes awaiting those with great fortune.De casibus virorum illustrium (work by Boccaccio) -- Britannica He offers a moral commentary on overcoming misfortune by adhering to virtue through a moral God's world. Here the monastic chronicle tradition combines with the classical ideas of Senecan tragedy.
Content De casibus stems from the tradition of exemplary literature works about famous people. It showed with the lives of these people that it was not only biographies, but also snapshots of their moral virtues.Medieval France: An Encyclopedia By William W. Kibler, p. 129, Routledge Publisher (1995), Paris, Boccaccio relates biographies of famous people who were at the height of happiness and fell to misfortune when they least expected it. This sad event is sometimes referred to as a "de casibus tragedy" after this work. William Shakespeare created characters based on this phenomenon, as did Christopher Marlowe.
Lives recounted
In order, directly translated from Latin.Giovanni Boccaccio, Tutte le opere Vol. 9: De casibus virorum illustrium ed. trans. V. Zaccarria (La Scuola: Mondadori, 1983).
Only the historical figures whose names feature in chapter titles (i.e., whose lives are recounted more at length) are reported; the total number is far greater.
Book One Adam and Eve Nembroth Saturn Cadmus, King of Thebes Jocasta, Queen of Thebes Thyestes and Atreus Theseus, King of Athens Priam, King of Troy, and his wife Hecuba Agamemnon, King of Mycenae Samson
Book Two Saul, King of Israel Rehoboam, King of the Hebrews Athaliah, Queen of Jerusalem Dido, Queen of Carthage Sardanapalus, King of Assyria Zedekiah, King of Jerusalem Astyages, King of Media Croesus, King of Lydia
Book Three Tarquinius the Great, King of the Romans Xerxes I, King of the Persians Appius Claudius, the decemvir Alcibiades the Athenian Hanno, son of Hamilcar of Carthage Artaxerxes, King of the Persians
Book Four Marcus Manlius Capitolinus Dionysius of Syracuse Polycrates, tyrant of Samos Callisthenes the Philosopher Alexander, king of Epirus Darius, King of the Persians Eumenes, ruler of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia Olympias, Queen of Macedonia Agathocles, King of Sicily Arsinoe, Queen of Macedonia Pyrrhus, King of Epirus Arsinoe, Queen of Cyrene
Book Five Seleucus and Anthiocus, Kings of Asia and Syria Marcus Atilius Regulus Syphax, King of Numidia Antiochus the Great, King of Asia and Syria Hannibal, leader of Carthage Prusias, King of Bithynia Perseus, King of Macedonia Pseudo-Philip, King of Macedonia Alexander Balas, King of Syria Demetrius, King of Syria Alexander Zabinas, King of Syria Jugurtha, King of the Numidians
Book Six Gaius Marius of Arpinum Cleopatra Mithridates, King of Pontus Orodes, King of Parthia Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus Marcus Tullius Cicero Marcus Antonius the Triumvir and Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt
Book Seven Herod, King of the Jews Tiberius Caesar, Gaius Caligula and Valeria Messalina Nero Claudius Caesar Aulus Vitellius Caesar
Book Eight Valerian Augustus, the Roman Emperor Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra Diocletian, Roman Emperor Maximian Hercules, Roman Emperor Galerius Maximianus, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate Radagaisus, King of the Goths King Arthur of the Bretons Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards
Book Nine Brunhilda of Austrasia Romilda Desiderius Pope John XII Romanos IV DiogenesÇoban, R. V. (2020). The Manzikert Battle and Sultan Alp Arslan with European Perspective in the 15st Century in the Miniatures of Giovanni Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium"s 226 and 232. French Manuscripts in Bibliothèque Nationale de France. S. Karakaya ve V. Baydar (Ed.), in 2nd International Muş Symposium Articles Book (pp. 48-64). Muş: Muş Alparslan University. Source Andronikos I Komnenos William III of Sicily Henry (VII) of Germany Charles of Anjou James Master of the Templars Walter VI of Brienne Philippa of Catania
See also The Monk's Tale On Famous Women The Legend of Good Women The Book of the City of Ladies The Fall of Princes
References
Primary sources Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. Vittore Branca (Verona: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1964) The Fates of Illustrious Men, trans. Louis Brewer Hall (New York, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1965) Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes translated from Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustribus by Laurent de Premierfait (1400) Laurent de Premierfait: The Translator of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum IllustriumThe Manuscripts of Laurent de Premierfait's 'Du Cas des Nobles' (Boccaccio's 'De Casibus Virorum Illustrium')The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism - Cambridge University
Secondary sources Miscellanea di Studi e Ricerche sul Quattrecento francese, ed., F. Simone (Turin: Giappichelli, 1966) Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes ed., Patricia May Gathercole, Chapel Hill - University of North Carolina (1968) Çoban, R. V. (2020). The Manzikert Battle and Sultan Alp Arslan with European Perspective in the 15st Century in the Miniatures of Giovanni Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium"s 226 and 232. French Manuscripts in Bibliothèque Nationale de France. S. Karakaya ve V. Baydar (Ed.), in 2nd International Muş Symposium Articles Book (pp. 48-64). Muş: Muş Alparslan University. Source
Related references Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies (1405) Egan, Margarita trans. The Vidas of the Troubadours, New York, Garland (1984) Joinville, Jehan de Vie de saint Louis, ed., Noel L. Corbert. Sherbrook Naoman (1977) Richards, Earl Jeffery trans. The Book of the City of Ladies, New York, Persea (1982) Lalande, Denis, ed., Le livre des fais du bon messiere Jehan le Maingre, dit Bouciquaut Geneva: Droz (1985)
Footnotes
External links MS 439/16 Fall of princes at OPenn