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Biggs has written a learned book that enlists a wide range of scholarship (manu-script and textual studies, medieval economics, architecture, and urban history) to support his account of Boccaccio's impact on Chaucer. JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY An immensely learned study, an omnium gatherum full of rewarding nuggets. REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES Biggs offer a broad reading of Boccaccio and Chaucer as anti-authoritarian advocates of freedom, particularly women's freedom, as explorers of class competition, and as proponents of secularism. These provocative big-picture issues will give readers something to think about as they reconsider the relationship between the Italian and English poets studied in this assertive book, where Biggs displays a tremendous mastery of potential sources and stories behind some of the greatest works of medieval literature. ARTHURIANA Biggs has opened an early window on the genesis of Chaucer's idea of a narrative frame with multiple and incomplete structures of play and evaluation. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW What did the Decameron teach Chaucer? A new way of understanding literature, of considering the relationship between stories, themes and motifs in order to write fascinating, intriguing tales. Chaucer learned how to elaborate his own ideas in a new narrative style and in doing so - according to Biggs - went far beyond what Boccaccio had written. Let's face it, Chaucer knew the Decameron, and in reworking it showed that he fully possessed the characteristic English ability to take an existing literary work and perfect it - an extraordinary example of what Dryden termed the Genius of our Countrymen [...] to improve an Invention . L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO [T]his wide-ranging study demonstrates that there is still a great deal more room for debate and development of understanding of Chaucer's debt to Boccaccio. Highly recommended. CHOICE Chaucer's Decameron presents an exceptional breadth of scholarship, supporting its bold argument by compiling evidence from an extensive range of historical sources. ANGLIA

Biggs has written a learned book that enlists a wide range of scholarship (manu-script and textual studies, medieval economics, architecture, and urban history) to support his account of Boccaccio's impact on Chaucer. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND GERMANIC PHILOLOGY * An immensely learned study, an omnium gatherum full of rewarding nuggets. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES * Biggs offer a broad reading of Boccaccio and Chaucer as anti-authoritarian advocates of freedom, particularly women's freedom, as explorers of class competition, and as proponents of secularism. These provocative big-picture issues will give readers something to think about as they reconsider the relationship between the Italian and English poets studied in this assertive book, where Biggs displays a tremendous mastery of potential sources and stories behind some of the greatest works of medieval literature. * ARTHURIANA * Biggs has opened an early window on the genesis of Chaucer's idea of a narrative frame with multiple and incomplete structures of play and evaluation. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW * What did the Decameron teach Chaucer? A new way of understanding literature, of considering the relationship between stories, themes and motifs in order to write fascinating, intriguing tales. Chaucer learned how to elaborate his own ideas in a new narrative style and in doing so - according to Biggs - went far beyond what Boccaccio had written. Let's face it, Chaucer knew the Decameron, and in reworking it showed that he fully possessed the characteristic English ability to take an existing literary work and perfect it - an extraordinary example of what Dryden termed 'the Genius of our Countrymen [...] to improve an Invention'. * L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO * [T]his wide-ranging study demonstrates that there is still a great deal more room for debate and development of understanding of Chaucer's debt to Boccaccio. Highly recommended. * CHOICE * Chaucer's Decameron presents an exceptional breadth of scholarship, supporting its bold argument by compiling evidence from an extensive range of historical sources. * ANGLIA * This book deserves to be read and recognized for its deep learning and astute critical analysis of Chaucer's tales, the historical and cultural contextualization of them, and beyond that, the nature of source study itself. * PARERGON *

An immensely learned study, an omnium gatherum full of rewarding nuggets. REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES Biggs offer a broad reading of Boccaccio and Chaucer as anti-authoritarian advocates of freedom, particularly women's freedom, as explorers of class competition, and as proponents of secularism. These provocative big-picture issues will give readers something to think about as they reconsider the relationship between the Italian and English poets studied in this assertive book, where Biggs displays a tremendous mastery of potential sources and stories behind some of the greatest works of medieval literature. ARTHURIANA Biggs has opened an early window on the genesis of Chaucer's idea of a narrative frame with multiple and incomplete structures of play and evaluation. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW What did the Decameron teach Chaucer? A new way of understanding literature, of considering the relationship between stories, themes and motifs in order to write fascinating, intriguing tales. Chaucer learned how to elaborate his own ideas in a new narrative style and in doing so - according to Biggs - went far beyond what Boccaccio had written. Let's face it, Chaucer knew the Decameron, and in reworking it showed that he fully possessed the characteristic English ability to take an existing literary work and perfect it - an extraordinary example of what Dryden termed the Genius of our Countrymen [...] to improve an Invention . L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO [T]his wide-ranging study demonstrates that there is still a great deal more room for debate and development of understanding of Chaucer's debt to Boccaccio. Highly recommended. CHOICE

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