The Decameron

Giovanni Boccaccio

Apr. 2020 · Verkoop deur McClelland & Stewart

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“The 14th-century Italian book that shows us how to survive coronavirus.” —New Statesman

“The Decameron reads in some ways as a guide to social distancing and self-isolation.” —The New York Times

A masterpiece of classical early Italian prose, The Decameron is a collection of novellas by 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. It is comprised of 100 entertaining tales, told over ten days by a group of seven young women and three young men who are sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to avoid the Black Death plague that was afflicting the city in the summer of 1348.

Later regarded as a “Human Comedy” and wildly influential on Renaissance literature, The Decameron is broad in range, alternately tragic and comic, and was a necessary prophylaxis of the time, demonstrating a way to survive the worst days of a pandemic: storytelling while in isolation. Though Boaccaccio’s collection is over 500 years old, the lessons it holds in regards to humanity and survival still ring true today.

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GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO (1313-1375) was an Italian writer and poet, and the author of notable works including The Decameron and On Famous Women. Alongside Petrarch he laid the foundations for humanism, and his work was inspiration for Chaucer and Shakespeare, among others.