If we go back as far as Dante [Sidenote: Dante, 1265-1321] we find, along with many modern elements, such as the use of the vernacular, a completely medieval conception of the universe.

His immortal poem is in one respect but a commentary on the _Summa theologiae_ of Aquinas; it is all about the other world.
The younger contemporaries of the great Florentine [Sidenote: Petrarch, 1304-1374] began to be restless as the implications of the new spirit dawned on them.

Petrarch lamented that literary culture was deemed incompatible with faith.

Boccaccio was as much a child of this world as Dante was a prophet of the next.

[Sidenote: Boccaccio, 1313-1375] Too simple-minded deliberately to criticize doctrine, he was instinctively opposed to ecclesiastical professions.