The Decameron

The Decameron is a 14th-century collection of 100 stories by Giovanni Boccaccio, framed as tales told by ten young people sheltering from the Black Death.

Giovanni Boccaccio: Giovanni Boccaccio was a 14th-century Italian writer whose works helped establish vernacular prose and humanist learning. He wrote The Decameron and appears within its frame as the authorial voice.
Dioneo: Dioneo is one of the ten storytellers in The Decameron, known for comic and sexually frank tales. His license to depart from the daily theme gives the storytelling rules a controlled exception.
Medieval Italian literature: Medieval Italian literature includes works composed in the Italian vernaculars and Latin during the Middle Ages. Boccaccio drew on medieval narrative forms while expanding the possibilities of Italian prose.
Renaissance humanism: Renaissance humanism was an intellectual movement that revived classical learning and emphasized human capacities and worldly life. The Decameron’s attention to human motives and social conduct anticipates humanist interests.
Fortuna: Fortuna is the personification of chance and changing circumstances in classical and medieval thought. Many tales turn on sudden reversals of fortune, a recurring force in the collection.
Frame story: A frame story is a narrative that contains and organizes one or more other stories. The ten storytellers’ shared situation gives the collection its overarching narrative.
Pampinea: Pampinea is the eldest of the seven women who organize the storytelling company in The Decameron. She proposes leaving plague-stricken Florence and establishes the group’s orderly life.
Plague of 1348 in Florence: The plague of 1348 in Florence was a catastrophic outbreak described by contemporary chroniclers, including Boccaccio. Boccaccio’s account of the epidemic introduces the fictional escape that frames the collection.
History of the Black Death: The history of the Black Death studies the plague pandemic, its spread, and its social and demographic effects. Boccaccio’s opening provides a literary witness to how plague was imagined in Florence.
Medieval comedy: Medieval comedy is comic writing from the Middle Ages, often shaped by social satire, mistaken identity, and reversal. The tales use comic reversals to expose pretension and social hypocrisy.

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