The Decameron

The Decameron is a collection of short stories by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, completed in 1353. The book was published in the wake of the Black Death, a bubonic plague which swept through Europe in the 14th century. The plague killed a large percentage of the population of Boccaccio’s native Florence. Boccaccio uses the epidemic as a key part of the book’s framing narrative, as in the book, a group of young Florentine men and women attempt to escape the plague-ridden city. They stay in a villa in the countryside and swap stories. The Decameron not only provides an important historical document of the Black Death, but also helped to established vernacular Italian as a legitimate literary language. The book has been hailed as one of the most important and influential literary pieces from the era. This guide uses an eBook version of the 1995 Penguin edition, translated by G. H. McWilliam.

Plot Summary

The Decameron opens with a description of the Black Death that is ravaging the Italian city of Florence in 1348. The plague is killing many people and the extent of the death and suffering means that social order and institutions are on the point of collapse.