De casibus virorum illustrium
E111102
De casibus virorum illustrium is a 14th-century Latin prose work by Giovanni Boccaccio that recounts the tragic downfalls of famous historical and mythological figures as moral exempla on the instability of fortune.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium | 1 |
| De casibus illustrium virorum | 1 |
| De casibus virorum illustrium canonical | 1 |
| Uses of Great Men | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T945131 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: De casibus virorum illustrium Context triple: [Giovanni Boccaccio, notableWork, De casibus virorum illustrium]
-
A.
De viris illustribus
De viris illustribus is a late 4th-century biographical work by Jerome that catalogs and briefly describes notable Christian authors and their writings.
-
B.
Rerum vulgarium fragmenta
Rerum vulgarium fragmenta is a seminal 14th-century Italian lyric poetry collection by Petrarch that helped shape the development of Renaissance humanism and the European sonnet tradition.
-
C.
Institutio principis Christiani
Institutio principis Christiani is a 16th-century humanist treatise by Desiderius Erasmus that outlines the moral and educational ideals of a Christian ruler.
-
D.
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives is a series of biographies by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch that pairs notable Greek and Roman figures to explore their characters and moral lessons.
-
E.
De remediis utriusque fortunae
De remediis utriusque fortunae is a 14th-century moral-philosophical dialogue by Francesco Petrarca that offers guidance on coping wisely with both good and bad fortune.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: De casibus virorum illustrium Target entity description: De casibus virorum illustrium is a 14th-century Latin prose work by Giovanni Boccaccio that recounts the tragic downfalls of famous historical and mythological figures as moral exempla on the instability of fortune.
-
A.
De viris illustribus
De viris illustribus is a late 4th-century biographical work by Jerome that catalogs and briefly describes notable Christian authors and their writings.
-
B.
Rerum vulgarium fragmenta
Rerum vulgarium fragmenta is a seminal 14th-century Italian lyric poetry collection by Petrarch that helped shape the development of Renaissance humanism and the European sonnet tradition.
-
C.
Institutio principis Christiani
Institutio principis Christiani is a 16th-century humanist treatise by Desiderius Erasmus that outlines the moral and educational ideals of a Christian ruler.
-
D.
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives
Plutarch’s Parallel Lives is a series of biographies by the ancient Greek writer Plutarch that pairs notable Greek and Roman figures to explore their characters and moral lessons.
-
E.
De remediis utriusque fortunae
De remediis utriusque fortunae is a 14th-century moral-philosophical dialogue by Francesco Petrarca that offers guidance on coping wisely with both good and bad fortune.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Latin prose work
ⓘ
didactic literature ⓘ literary work ⓘ moral treatise ⓘ |
| alternateName |
De casibus virorum illustrium
ⓘ
surface form:
De casibus illustrium virorum
On the Fates of Famous Men ⓘ
surface form:
On the Downfall of Famous Men
On the Fates of Famous Men ⓘ |
| approximateDateOfComposition | circa 1355–1374 ⓘ |
| author | Giovanni Boccaccio ⓘ |
| circulation |
translated into English
ⓘ
translated into French ⓘ widely read in late Middle Ages ⓘ |
| contains |
accounts of biblical figures
ⓘ
accounts of classical heroes ⓘ accounts of rulers and tyrants ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Italy ⓘ |
| didacticPurpose |
to illustrate divine and secular justice
ⓘ
to warn against pride and overconfidence ⓘ |
| genre |
biographical collection
ⓘ
mirror for princes ⓘ moral exempla ⓘ |
| historicalScope | from biblical antiquity to Boccaccio’s own time ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
The Consolation of Philosophy
ⓘ
surface form:
Boethius’ De consolatione philosophiae
Christian moral theology ⓘ classical historiography ⓘ |
| influenceOn |
John Lydgate
ⓘ
Laurent de Premierfait’s French translations ⓘ Renaissance tragedy of fortune ⓘ The Fall of Princes ⓘ late medieval moral historiography ⓘ |
| language | Latin ⓘ |
| literaryForm | prosimetrum-like moral history ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | Italian Trecento literature ⓘ |
| literaryTechnique |
moralizing commentary
ⓘ
use of exempla ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
instability of fortune
ⓘ
moral instruction ⓘ mutability of worldly success ⓘ tragic downfall of the powerful ⓘ |
| moralStance |
critical of worldly ambition
ⓘ
emphasis on humility ⓘ |
| narrativeForm | prose ⓘ |
| originalTitleLanguage | Latin ⓘ |
| placeOfComposition | Florence ⓘ |
| structure | collection of biographies ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
famous historical figures
ⓘ
mythological figures ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfComposition | 14th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: De casibus virorum illustrium Description of subject: De casibus virorum illustrium is a 14th-century Latin prose work by Giovanni Boccaccio that recounts the tragic downfalls of famous historical and mythological figures as moral exempla on the instability of fortune.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Uses of Great Men
this entity surface form:
De casibus illustrium virorum
this entity surface form:
Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium