The Decameron

The Decameron is a collection of 100 tales by Giovanni Boccaccio written between 1348 and 1353. The frame work for the narrative is provided by a group of friends, seven women and three men, all "well bred, of worth and discretion", who take refuge in the countryside above plague ridden Florence, and entertain each other with a series of anecdotes, told in turn by members of the party. At the end of the hundredth tale, the friends return home.

The Decameron, more than any other of Giovanni Boccaccio's works, establishes his place among the great writers of all time. In it Boccaccio gathers material from all sources including the French fabliaux, the classics, current folklore, and contemporary life. The Decameron has been a storehouse for writers of narrative from Giovanni Boccaccio's era to modern times; hundreds of writers including Chaucer and Shakespeare have drawn from it. The perfection of Giovanni Boccaccio's craftsmanship, likewise, has made his work a model for storytelling.





Giovanni Boccaccio leather bound books