Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, 1625 - Book 1, p.107v

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Date:1625

Description:A source for Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well.

It is possible that Shakespeare may have been able to read, or knew the Decameron in its original Italian. His patron the Earl of Southampton employed as his librarian, John Florio, who became famous for his translations, and study of language, and published dictionaries of Italian/English. Shakespeare used the Italian stories of Boccaccio for All’s Well That Ends Well, which is based on the tale of Beltramo and Giglietta, and for the wager between Iachimo and Posthumous in Cymbeline.

Full title: Giovanni Boccaccio, The modell of witt, mirth, eloquence and conversation, translated by J. Florio [The Decameron, book 1], London, Printed by I. Jaggard for M. Lowndes, 1625.
Bound with: Giovanni Boccaccio, The The Decameron...,[Book 2] translated by J. Florio, London, Printed by Isaac Jaggard, 1620.


Timeline

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1570s
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1590s
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1610s
George Tuberville, The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting, 1611 -  A royal picnic, p.91.
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1630s
William Shakespeare,  Love's Labour's Lost, 1631 -  the play ends with a song of winter
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Donor ref:SR/OS 99.4 Italian [32,402] (32/10608)

Source: The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - Library

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