libri XV._, a compendium of mythological knowledge
full of deep learning; _De Montium, Silvarum, Lacuum, et Marium
nominibus liber_, a treatise on ancient geography; and two historical
books--_De Casibus Virorum et Feminarum Illustrium libri IX._,
interesting to the English reader as the original of John Lydgate's
_Fall of Princes_; and _De Claris Mulieribus_. To the list of his works
ought to be added _Il Ninfale Fiesolano_, a beautiful love-story in
verse, and _Il Corbaccio ossia Il Laberinto d'Amore_, a coarse satire on
a Florentine widow who had jilted the poet, written about 1355, not to
mention many eclogues in Latin and miscellaneous _Rime_ in Italian (the
latter collected by his biographer Count Baldelli in 1802).

In 1373 we find Boccaccio again settled at Certaldo. Here he was
attacked by a terrible disease which brought him to the verge of death,
and from the consequences of which he never quite recovered. But
sickness could not subdue his intellectual vigour. When the Florentines
established a chair for the explanation of the _Divina Commedia_ in
their university, and offered it to Boccaccio, the senescent poet at
once undertook the arduous duty. He delivered his first lecture on the
23rd of October 1373. The commentary on part of the _Inferno_, already
alluded to, bears witness of his unabated power of intellect. In 1374
the news of the loss of his dearest friend Petrarch reached Boccaccio,
and from this blow he may be said to have never recovered. Almost his
dying efforts were devoted to the memory of his friend; urgently he
entreated Petrarch's son-in-law to arrange the publication of the
deceased poet's Latin epic _Africa_, a work of which the author had been
far more proud than of his immortal sonnets to Laura.

In his last will Boccaccio left his library to his father confessor, and
after his decease to the convent of Santo Spirito in Florence. His small
property he bequeathed to his brother Jacopo. His own natural children
had died before him. He himself died on the 21st of December 1375 at
Certaldo, and was buried in the church of SS. Jacopo e Filippo of that
town. On his tombstone was engraved the epitaph composed by himself
shortly before his death. It is calm and dignified, worthy indeed of a
great life with a great purpose. These are the lines:--

"Hac sub mole jacent cineres ac ossa Joannis;
Mens sedet ante Deum, meritis ornata laborum
Mortalis vitae. Genitor Boccaccius illi;
Patri