The Decameron

The Decameron is a novel that was finished by Giovanni Boccaccio in 1353. This work opens with a description of the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) and leads into an introduction of a group of seven young women and three young men who fled from Plague-ridden Florence for a villa outside of Naples. To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for every one of the ten nights spent at the villa. In this manner, 100 stories would have been told by the end of the ten days. One of the more notable stories told was the Tale of Filippa.

The Decameron is a distinctive work, in that it describes in detail the physical, psychological and social effects that the Bubonic Plague had on that part of Europe. It is also interesting to note that a number of the stories contained within The Decameron would later appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (However, it is not known whether Chaucer had known of the novel).

Pier Paolo Pasolini made a film based on the stories in The Decameron called, appropriately, The Decameron[?]

External Link

• Medieval Sourcebook: Boccaccio: The Decameron - Introduction (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2)