Related to this is the belief in the promotion of wealth,pleasure and three younger gentlemen on their way to escape the Black Death and a frank admiration for the beauty of human body.This ran of 1348.The tales are witty,licentious,full of praises of true love exactly counter to the medieval ascetical ideal of poverty and and wisdom and also satire on the hypocrisy of the priest and the stoicism,and shifted man's interest from Christianity to humanity, aristocrat. from religion to philosophy,from heaven to earth,from beauty of With the Decameron the courtly themes of medieval literature God,and the House of God to the beauty of the human body in all its began to give way to the voice and mores of early modern society.It joys and pains,senses and feelings.Theologically,the humanists is the greatest achievement of prose fiction in the Middle Ages. were religious.But they began to look at the problems of God and Providence with a view to understanding man's work and man's b.Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) earthly happiness. Petrarch was a prominent figure of his time,a great figure in The earliest humanists were,however,scholars in Florence who Italian literature and one of the great humanists during the time of had great interests in the study of classic language,literature and the Renaissance. philosophy.They dug up "lost texts"from the forgotten corners to Petrarch was a courtier and a diplomat,living for a time near revive them.In reviving classic Greek and Roman culture,they the papal court at Avignon and travelling extensively through Europe believed they were reviving the past of man in ancient times and on diplomatic missions for such families as the Viscounti of Milan.In helping develop the capacities and powers that the Greeks and the course of his travels,he found time to write numerous lyrics, Romans once possessed. sonnets and canzonets,as well as to seek and obtain classic texts and The philosophy of humanism is reflected in the art and literature transcribe them with his own hand.In 1333 at Liege,Belgium,he in Italy and the rest of Europe,to pass down as the beginning of the discovered Cicero's Oration Pro Arochia,a Roman Defense of history of modern man,who,instead of brooding about death and Poetry,which was a great contribution to western civilization. the other world,lives and works for the present and future progress On April 6,1327,Petrarch met Laura in the Church of St. of mankind. Clare for the first time.Thereafter,Laura became the object and image of his love poetry.In the sonnets written during her lifetime 3.New literature and after her death,Petrarch showed himself to be a great humanist a.Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) writer,keenly aware of mortal beauty and earthly values. Boccaccio was a close friend of Petrarch.He worked vigorously He was a literary master not only in lyric poetry but also in to reintroduce Greek works. prose.In his letters,and treatises written in Latin,he was a His greatest work was the Decameron,written in his middle repentant sinner and a great craftsman.He knows "how to make years.The book is a collection of 100 tales told by seven young ladies beauty yield meaning and meaning yield beauty". 132 133 稀得