Boccaccio’s House in Certaldo
The residence of one of the great masters of Italian literature
Boccaccio’s House in Certaldo is a museum dedicated to promoting awareness about the work and figure of the illustrious poet, born in this village in 1313.
The building, which thanks to some documents has been recognized as the home of Giovanni Boccaccio, conserves only a few traces of the original medieval structure, rebuilt in style after the damage caused by the Second World War.
Inside there are furniture, furnishings and explanatory panels documenting the life and writings of the master.
In the Poet’s Room (Stanza della Poeta) visitors can also admire a fresco by the Florentine painter Pietro Benvenuti, commissioned by the Marchioness Carlotta Lenzoni dei Medici in 1826, and depicting Boccaccio at his desk.
The house-museum is also home to the Centro Nazionale di Studi sul Boccaccio and houses a Boccaccio-related library with some exquisite illustrated editions of the "Decameron": the great author’s masterpiece, written between 1349 and 1351, mainly famous for some humorous and obscene short stories.
A curiosity: during a restoration, numerous pairs of 15th-century men’s and women’s shoes were discovered, a rare testimony of the fashion of the time.
