GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO has fallen upon evil days. No one reads the Decameron now, and if, by chance, a copy of that work finds itself in the library of a respectable person, it stands in the darkest corner of the top shelf of the bookcase, where the dust accumulates from spring to spring. This year the Italians will celebrate the sixth centenary of Giovanni Boccaccio’s birth, and surely there is no name in their literature, rich as it is in great names, that deserves more honour. We know that Giovanni Boccaccio studied law; it may be that he also studied medicine...