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The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

HistoryEnglish
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In 1348, as the Black Death sweeps through Florence, seven young women and three young men leave the dying city for a villa in the hills. To pass the time…

Catalogue details

Author
Giovanni Boccaccio
Category
History
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

In 1348, as the Black Death sweeps through Florence, seven young women and three young men leave the dying city for a villa in the hills. To pass the time, each of them tells a story every day for ten days, on a theme chosen by the day's king or queen, making a hundred tales in all. They range from bawdy comedy and clever tricks to tragic love and noble generosity: the swindler Ser Ciappelletto who is taken for a saint; the parable of the three rings told by a Jewish moneylender to Saladin; Federigo, who serves his beloved falcon to the woman he loves; and patient Griselda.

Context and significance

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) finished the book around 1353, and its lively Italian prose made it a model for later storytellers, from Chaucer to Shakespeare and Lessing, whose Nathan the Wise takes up the ring parable. This complete translation is by John Payne. Chaucer's English frame of tales is The Canterbury Tales.

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