HCCS The Decameron and Late Middle Ages Study Guide Paper

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just a study guide for test for so no need to cite work. Here are all the terms

at least 7pgs of content

1. Know the following terms from Hunt, the overview video, and the online readings:

Black Death
Hundred Years War
Defender of the Peace (1324)
Great Famine
Great Schism
Humanism
Hanseatic League
Medici
Christian Humanism
indulgences
Calvinism
Eucharist
Act of Supremacy

2. Know the following terms and topics from Boccaccio, including the introductions:

Naples
Florence
Bardi
Petrarch
Dante
Black Death

An Introduction to Giovanni Boccaccio (pp. xv-xxxix)

  • How
    did Bocaccio’s move from Naples to Florence involve a change in
    cultural perspective? In other words, how did the culture of Florence
    differ from the culture of Naples, and what impact did that change have
    on his literary perspective?
  • In what sense did the Decameron reflect the cultures of both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? (pp. xvii-xix)
  • Which literary figures figured prominently in Boccaccio’s development?
  • What was Boccaccio’s father’s profession?
  • In what sense was the Decameron an attempt at being a comedy in the medieval sense of the word?
  • What types of literary work preoccupied Boccaccio after he completed the Decameron?
  • What sources directly influenced the writing of the Decameron? (pp. xxi-xxi)
  • How did the Decameron reflect the impact of the Black Death on social conditions? (pp. xxiv-xxvi)
  • How did the topics of Fortune, intelligence, love, and magnanimity figure into the stories? (pp. xxviii-xxxvii)

Author’s Preface & Introduction (pp.1-17)

  • How did Boccaccio begin the Decameron? What topics did he address, and how did they relate to the Black Death?
  • Explain Boccaccio’s claim that he wrote these stories for women. (pp. 2-7). What was his rationale?
  • How does Boccaccio refer to love or Love in the preface?
  • What were three typical responses to the plague according to Boccaccio?
  • How
    did the plague influence family relations? What impact did the plague
    have on established customs, such as burial of the dead?
  • What rhetoric in the introduction suggests that Boccaccio had a low opinion of women’s ability to reason?

Day 1

  • How does Ser Ciappelletto deceive the friar? How did this story resemble the first story of Day 2 in its treatment of saints?
  • What
    stereotypes of monks and friars does Boccaccio perpetuate in the first
    and fourth story? What do these stereotypes suggest about human
    weaknesses?
  • How does Boccaccio portray non-Christians in the
    second and third stories? What does this tendency suggest about his
    religious orientation? How might it be related to the Christian Humanism
    described by Hunt?
  • How did the fifth story about the King of
    France address the concepts of hierarchy and foolishness? How prevalent
    are these concepts in other stories?
  • What is the primary topic of Emilia’s song at the end of the first day?

Day 2

  • What factors contributed to the misfortune and subsequent escape of the con man in the first story?
  • How did Boccaccio employ the concept of love in explaining how Rinaldo overcome his misfortune in the second story?
  • How did the fourth story address the relationship between Fortune and socioeconomic mobility?
  • What
    was the source of Andreuccio’s misfortune in the story, and what
    ultimately saved him from misfortune at the end of the story?

Day 10

  • How did the story of Griselda depict marriage?
  • What did the story of Griselda communicate about the nature of the relationship between class and character?
  • What was Boccaccio’s explanation for writing a lengthy book for women?