to Boccaccio gave additional import to
this alarming information. Boccaccio's impressionable nature was deeply
moved. His life had been far from virtuous; in his writings he had
frequently sinned against the rules of morality, and worse still, he had
attacked with bitter satire the institutions and servants of holy mother
church. Terrified by the approach of immediate death, he resolved to
sell his library, abandon literature, and devote the remainder of his
life to penance and religious exercise. To this effect he wrote to
Petrarch. We possess the poet's answer; it is a masterpiece of writing,
and what is more, a proof of tenderest friendship. The message of the
monk Petrarch is evidently inclined to treat simply as pious fraud,
without, however, actually committing himself to that opinion. "No monk
is required to tell thee of the shortness and precariousness of human
life. Of the advice received accept what is good; abandon worldly cares,
conquer thy passions, and reform thy soul and life of degraded habits.
But do not give up the studies which are the true food of a healthy
mind." Boccaccio seems to have acted on this valuable advice. His later
works, although written in Latin and scientific in character, are by no
means of a religious kind. It seems, however, that his entering the
church in 1362 is connected with the events just related.

In 1363 Boccaccio went on a visit to Naples to the seneschal Acciajuoli
(the same Florentine who had in 1344 persuaded the elder Boccaccio to
permit his son's return to Naples), who commissioned him to write the
story of his deeds of valour. On his arrival, however, the poet was
treated with shameful neglect, and revenged himself by denying the
possibility of relating any valorous deeds for want of their existence.
This declaration, it must be confessed, came somewhat late, but it was
provoked by a silly attack on the poet himself by one of the seneschal's
indiscreet friends.

During the next ten years Boccaccio led an unsettled life, residing
chiefly at Florence or Certaldo, but frequently leaving his home on
visits to Petrarch and other friends, and on various diplomatic errands
in the service of the Republic. He seems to have been poor, having spent
large sums in the purchase of books, but his independent spirit rejected
the numerous splendid offers of hospitality made to him by friends and
admirers. During this period he wrote four important Latin works--_De
Genealogia Deorum