Book reading by Dr. Klaus Engert

Dr. Klaus Engert, born in 1964 in Würzburg, has dedicated himself to the Italian language, history and art history, and the history of Italian Literature of the 14th century since his student days, for example studying at the University of Bologna with Umberto Eco.

The author will be speaking about and reading from his brilliant description of the life of the father of European prose literature in the era of the exuberant early capitalism between Florence and Naples. Boccaccio had to experience, right in the middle of his life, the Pest of 1348, the largest pandemic ever to hit Europe. The social changes of that time, here clearly described, are very reminiscent of those brought about through the Corona pandemic.

Engert begins by spiriting us back to Boccaccios fancy-free, pleasurable life as a student in Naples, around the court of King Robert of Anjou. In stark contrast to this is his retreat into the rural seclusion of the Tuscan Certaldo and his conscious renunciation of social vanities and exaggerated materialism. This gives us the portrait of an influential humanist of the early Renaissance who gave humanity his Decamerone. Engert brings this person, full of goodness and humanity, to life -- one who unites the neapolitan love of life and Tuscan virtues in his literature -- and whose own life was also deeply influenced by the death-bringing epidemic of 1348, its long-term effects and the additional waves which continued to come which seemed to keep coming throughout the rest of his life.