ABSTRACT
In 1927, John Daniel Cooke observed that euhemerism inaugurated all medieval approaches to classical mythology by converting polytheistic paganism into monotheistic history. Information accumulation undoubtedly played a role in medieval literal-historicism, but it did not play the only role, in part because it filtered into medieval grammar through Servius’s ancient applications of euhemerism. Boccaccio’s euhemeristic inheritance was primarily medieval. An enduring grammatical tradition emerged for them during late antiquity, when grammarians such as Servius and Aelius Donatus composed grammar textbooks that helped canonize Virgil and that served as textbook exemplars throughout the Middle Ages. With text-based exploration, Boccaccio embarks on his own work’s production as a geographical journey. The reduction indicates that the grounding of gods required little effort in the Middle Ages, even less effort than was required of Servius in his more culturally compatible late antiquity.
