Written in the middle of the 14th century as the Bubonic Plague decimated the population of Europe, «The Decameron» is a satirically allegorical collection of stories by the Italian author Boccaccio. The refined frame narrative of this work allows for ten Florentine women and men to flee the city and take refuge in a country villa of Italy. In the ten days they are to stay, each of them is to tell a story a day, the themes of which are determined by the elected king or queen for that day. Most...
Boccaccios human comedy – This fascinating fourteenth-century text is as complex as it is misunderstood. The premise is simple enough: the author creates a fictional set-up where, over ten days, seven female and three male characters who are cooped up in a country estate tell one another a total of 100 stories. The title, The Decameron, literally means ten days work. <p> But this framing technique of ten narrators is hardly the point. The star of this work are the tales told by these...
