Boccaccio on art, writing, author's and reader's judgement. From "Decameron".
"...no less gratitude should be granted to my pen than to the brush of the painter, who without incurring censure, of a justified kind at least, depicts Saint Michael striking the serpent with his sword or lance, and Saint George transfixing the dragon wherever he pleases; but that is not all, for he makes Christ male and Eve female, and fixes to the Cross, sometimes with a single nail, sometimes with two, the feet of Him who resolved to die thereon for the salvation of mankind."
"Like all other things in this world, stories, whatever their nature, may be harmful or useful, depending on the listener. Who will deny that wine, as Tosspot and Bibber and the great many others affirm, is an excellent thing for those who are hale and hearty,but harmful to the people suffering from a fever? Are we to conclude, because it does harm to the feverish, that therefore it is pernicious? Who will deny that fire is exceedingly useful, not to say vital, to men and women? Are we to conclude, because it burns down houses and villages and whole cities, that therefore it is pernicious?"
"...just as seemly language leaves no mark upon a mind that is corrupt, language that is less than seemly cannot contaminate a mind that is well ordered, any more than mud will sully the rays of the sun, or earthly filth the beauties of heaven."
"Like all other things in this world, stories, whatever their nature, may be harmful or useful, depending on the listener. Who will deny that wine, as Tosspot and Bibber and the great many others affirm, is an excellent thing for those who are hale and hearty,but harmful to the people suffering from a fever? Are we to conclude, because it does harm to the feverish, that therefore it is pernicious? Who will deny that fire is exceedingly useful, not to say vital, to men and women? Are we to conclude, because it burns down houses and villages and whole cities, that therefore it is pernicious?"
"...just as seemly language leaves no mark upon a mind that is corrupt, language that is less than seemly cannot contaminate a mind that is well ordered, any more than mud will sully the rays of the sun, or earthly filth the beauties of heaven."