Il Corbaccio, or "The Crow", is a late medieval (and/or early Renaissance) Italian literary work by Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...

, traditionally dated ca. 1355. Boccaccio is most famous as the author of The Decameron

The Decameron

The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....

(completed ca. 1351-2), another work of ambiguous interpretation regarding the dolce stil novo

Dolce Stil Novo

Dolce Stil Novo , or stilnovismo, is the name given to the most important literary movement of 13th century in Italy. Influenced by both Sicilian and Tuscan poetry, its main theme is Love . Gentilezza and Amore are indeed topoi in the major works of the period...

and the antifeminist counter argument. Regarding Il Corbaccio, whether the novel's theme of misogyny is a detailed study of the attitude or a direct misogynistic expression of the author has long been a subject of debate.

Scholars who consider the text to be autobiographical base their interpretaion on connecting aspects of the text to events in the author's life. The opposing view accepts the author's own reference to the work as a "trattato", or a philosophical treatment. As stated by scholar Anthony K. Cassell, "the formal elements of the treatise are part of a wide artistic tradition and contest autobiographical intention and interpretation."