Even Petrarch, whose erudition
was marvelous, could not read a copy of the _Iliad_ that he possessed.
Boccaccio asked permission of the Florentine Government to establish a
Greek professorship in the University of Florence, and persuaded a
learned Calabrian, Leonzio Pilato, who had a perfect knowledge of
ancient Greek, to leave Venice and accept the professorship at Florence,
and lodged him in his own house. Together the Calabrian and the author
of _La Fiammetta_ and the _Decameron_ made a Latin translation of the
_Iliad_, which Boccaccio transcribed with his own hand. But his literary
enthusiasm was not confined to his own work and that of the ancients.
His soul was filled with a generous ardor of admiration for Dante;
through his efforts the Florentines were awakened to a true sense of the
merits of the sublime poet, so long exiled from his native city, and the
younger genius succeeded in persuading them to establish a professorship
in the University for the sole study of the _Divine Comedy_, he himself
being the first to occupy the chair, and writing a _Life of Dante_,
besides commentaries on the _Comedy_ itself.
Mainly through his intimacy with the spiritual mind of Petrarch,
Boccaccio's moral character gradually underwent a change from the
reckless freedom and unbridled love of pleasure into which he had easily
fallen among his associates in the court life at Naples. He admired the
delicacy and high standard of honor of his friend, and became awakened
to a sense of man's duty to the world and to himself.
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