Giovanni Boccaccio

Boccaccio, Giovanni 1313–75, Italian poet and storyteller, author of the Decameron.
Born in Paris, the illegitimate son of a Tuscan merchant and a French woman, he was
educated at Certaldo and Naples by his father, who wanted him to take up commerce and
law. In Naples he met (1336) the woman (dubiously identified as Maria d'Aquino,
illegitimate daughter of King Robert) whom he was to immortalize in prose and verse as
Fiammetta. She is reputed to have introduced him at court and to have urged him to write
(c.1340) his early Filocolo, a long vernacular prose romance. Other early works include
the poem Filostrato, which infused the legendary story of Troilus and Cressida with the
atmosphere of Neapolitan court life; the Teseide, a poem in the style of the Aeneid; the psychological romance La
Fiammetta (written c.1344); the pastoral Ninfale d'Ameto; and the allegorical Amorosa visione, imitative of Dante.
Boccaccio was recalled to Florence in 1341, and there he met (1350) the great poet Petrarch, who became a lifelong
friend. Emulating Petrarch, he became a Latin and Greek scholar and worked vigorously to reintroduce Greek works. In
his middle years Boccaccio wrote (1348–53) his great secular classic, the Decameron, a collection of 100 witty and
occasionally licentious tales set against the somber background of the Black Death. The tales treat a wide variety of
characters and events and brilliantly reveal humanity as sensual, tender, cruel, weak, self-seeking, and ludicrous. With
the Decameron the courtly themes of medieval literature, while still much in evidence, began to give way to the voice
and mores of early modern society. Writing in Italian rather than Latin and in prose rather than poetry, Boccaccio
achieved stylistic mastery in the Decameron, which became a model for later efforts toward a distinctively Italian
literary style. After completing the tales, Boccaccio experienced a severe emotional crisis, during which he wrote the
satire Corbaccio, a savage attack on women.
In the next years there followed several works in Latin, the language of high culture. These included Bucolicum carmen
[pastoral songs], the huge De casibus virorem illustrium and De mulieribus claris (the first biographies of famous men,
the second of famous women), the mythological treatise De genealogiis, and the geographical dictionary De montibus.
Boccaccio's old age was troubled by poverty and ill health, but his activity continued. He was commissioned (1371) by
the commune of Certaldo to read daily from his beloved Dante, and in 1373 in Florence he began the lectures which
became his famous Commento on the Inferno. There are several translations of the Decameron and also many
anthologies and collections of particular stories in translation.
 Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton was born, premature and tiny, in 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England. His
father, wealthy but uneducated, died before Newton was born, and he ended up being raised
by his grandmother after his mother remarried. It’s said he didn’t excel at school, but he
ended up studying law at Trinity College Cambridge, part of Cambridge University. He
worked as a servant to pay his bills. And he kept a journal about his ideas.
What got Newton interested in math? He bought a book on the subject and couldn’t
comprehend it. After getting his bachelors degree in 1665, he studied math physics, optics
and astronomy on his own (Cambridge was closed for a couple years due to the Black
Death plague). By 1666 he had completed his early work on his three laws of motion. Later
he got his masters degree.
Later work focused on diffraction of light (he used a prism to discover that white light is made of a spectrum of colors)
and the concepts he’d become known for: universal gravitation, centrifugal force, centripetal force, and the effects and
characteristics of bodies in motion. His laws are still repeated by physics students today:
 An object will remain in a state of inertia unless acted upon by force.
 The relationship between acceleration and applied force is F=ma.
 For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Isaac Newton Quotes
Newton said many things worth remembering, including these philosophical gems:
 “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”
 “To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.”
Newton once said that if he had achieved anything in his research, it was "by standing on the shoulders of giants." The
quote was prophetic. A couple centuries later, Albert Einstein puzzled over included how to reconcile Newton's law of
gravity with special relativity, which after several years led to Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
Isaac Newton Inventions
While he’s best known for his work on gravity, Newton was a tinkerer, too, but more with ideas than physical
inventions. He did invent reflecting lenses for telescopes, which produced clearer images in a smaller telescope
compared with the refracting models of the time. In his later years, he developed anti-counterfeiting measures for coins,
including the ridges you see on quarters today.
Among his biggest “inventions” was calculus. Yes, that’s right. Mere math and algebra wasn’t enough to explain the
ideas in his head, so he helped invent calculus (German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz is typically credited with
developing it independently at about the same time).
It’s said Newton invented a cat door so hit cats would stop scratching to get in, but the truth of that one is a bit sketchy.
He also conceived of an “orbital cannon” that would poke out of a huge mountain, up in space, and with just the right
amount of gunpowder could put a cannonball into orbit. This was not something Newton actually imagined building,
but rather a way to think about his theories.
Later Years
Urged by astronomer Edmond Halley (who was studying his now-famous comet), Newton continued to study his notion
of gravity and apply it to the motions of the Earth, sun and moon. It all led to his seminal work, published in 1687,
called the Principia — considered by many as the greatest science book ever written.
Newton’s research stopped in 1679 when he had a nervous breakdown. Later, recovered, he spoke out against King
James II, who wanted only Roman Catholics to be in powerful government and academic positions. When James was
later driven out of England, Newton was elected to Parliament. He had a second breakdown in 1693, then retired from
research. Isaac Newton died in 1727.
 Leonardo da Vinci
15. April 1452 – 2. Mai 1519
Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, in the heart of the Renaissance
in the heart of Europe. He was born outside Vinci, which lies high
up on Mount Albano, in the valley of the Arno River, near the city
of Florence. Florence was an independent republic and commercial
center at the time of his birth. He was the son of Ser Pierro da Vinci,
who was a legal specialist, and a peasant girl named Caterina. He
was considered an “illegitimate” son because they were not married.
Right away. His father married into a wealthy family and he went to
live with his grandparents. Later he lived with his father’s family
and they didn’t conceal his birth and welcomed his addition to the
family.

As a child he was very smart and was very quick at arithmetic and
music. He learned the lyre and had a wonderful singing voice, and
quickly went to further develop his talents with a tutor. At age 17,
he went to become an apprentice of painting under the instruction of
Andrea del Verrochio, in Florence, who was an artist, skilled craftsmen, goldsmith, sculptor and painter. He
started to use his science to enhance his paintings. He studied and sketched rock formations, caves and fossils.
He had very few close friends during his life, even though he was very kind and sympathetic. Later, during his
apprenticeship, he started to find his niche at inventing machines like the helicopter, diving suit, and
submarine. After he finished his education, he stayed for a short time assisting Andrea del Verrochio.

From 1478 to 1482, he obtained his own studio. After that, he was offered the job of court artist for Lodvico
Sforza, the Duke of Milan. He took it and lived in beautiful Milan for 17 years. There, he had a great variety
of jobs including designing artillery, and planning river system diversions for the city. In Milan, he really
started to dive into the field of science and learn a lot. Go to the science section to learn more!

Toward the end of his life, in about 1508, King Louis XII of France asked him to accompany him to Milan,
and he went willingly. There, he stayed working on anatomy and other fields until 1512, when the French lost
Milan. He then had to go to Rome. There, he stayed until his life was finished. He was very good friends with
Guiliano de’ Medici, brother of the duke, and he was well housed and treated very kindly. Sadly, while in the
bliss of the Renaissance, his health started to fail. In March, 1516, Guiliano died, and Leonardo was left alone
in the world, practically deserted. Not far thereafter, on May 2, 1519, the mind of the Renaissance, Leonardo
da Vinci died.