The influence of Italian writers on Chaucer has been described by the use of such general terms as “renaissance,” “humanism,” or “Italian atmosphere,” and also by the enumeration of borrowed passages and the recognition of similarities of plot. Some critics believe that the Italian journeys opened new vistas for Chaucer in literature and life, while others hold that from Italy he derived only certain lines and stories. Consideration of this problem in terms of just one poem, Boccaccio's Teseida, is narrow and inconclusive, but has the advantages of being specific and of permitting an evolutionary—as opposed to a static—point of view; for of all Italian writings except Dante's Commedia, the Teseida served Chaucer the most widely. It formed the basic material out of which he created the Knight's Tale, and was the source of passages in Anelida and Arcite, the Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde, the Legend of Good Women, the Franklin's Tale, and possibly the House of Fame.
