The Decameron

The Decameron

Illustration from a ca. 1492 edition of Il Decameron published in Venice
Author	Giovanni Boccaccio
Original title	Decamerone
Translator	John Payne Richard Aldington James McMullen Rigg Mark Musa Peter Bondanella others
Language	Italian (Florentine)
Genre	Frame story, short story
Publisher	Filippo and Bernardo Giunti
Publication place	Italy
Published in English	1620
OCLC	58887280
Dewey Decimal	853.1
LC Class	PQ4267

The Decameron (/dɪˈkæmərən/; Italian: Decameron [deˈkaːmeron, dekameˈrɔn, -ˈron] or Decamerone [dekameˈroːne]), subtitled Prince Galehaut (Old Italian: Prencipe Galeotto [ˈprentʃipe ɡaleˈɔtto, ˈprɛn-]) and sometimes nicknamed l'Umana commedia ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's Comedy "Divine"), is a collection of short stories by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. The epidemic is likely what Boccaccio used for the basis of the book which was thought to be written between 1348–1353. The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons also contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of early Italian prose.^[1]