Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)
Here are sixteen tales from one of the great works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled for a while the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio’s answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante’s Divine Comedy…
Giovanni Boccaccio: Selections from The Decameron
1348, Florence. The Plague
The funeral customs are abandoned
Seven young women in the church of Santa Maria Novella
Three young men come into the church and Pampinea proposes
Dioneo’s tale of a young monk attracted by a pretty girl, and is espied by the Abbot
Panfilo’s tale of the misfortunes of a beautiful Saracen girl, whose beauty...
Pericone became daily more ardent
Alatiel courted by Prince of the Morea in Corinth
War became more imminent
Antioco and his merchant friend, and Antigono of Famagusta
Alatiel tells her father of her adventures
The company moves on
Pampinea’s tale of Agilulf, King of the Lombards, his Queen Theodilinda and the groom…
Fiammetta tells a tragic tale of the rage of Tancred, Prince of Salerno spent on Ghismonda and her lover Guiscardo
The Prince gives the command to kill
Pampinea lightens the mood of the party with a story of a monkish seduction
Gossip gains control
Filomena tells a tale of unswerving love
Eliza tells of pure and honest love of Angolella and Pietro
Filistrato recounts the balcony consummation of the love of Ricciardo and Caterina
Dioneo reports on a wife consigned to a marriage to a man who prefers men
Filistrato on the rights of women
Dioneo becomes king and leads the party to a new home
Filistrato with the story of the wine butt
Filomena tells a knightly tale of love
Fiammetta enjoys the revenge of one friend upon another
Emilia shows how easily a doctor can be a fool for all his learning
The doctor asks to join the club
The doctor goes to the tombs
Panfilo imagines a busy night at an inn on the road
Dioneo tells of patient Griselda and her testing husband Gualtieri
Gualtieri sends his daughter away
Gualtieri announces he will marry again
The story telling is at an end, and the company part
1348, Florence. The Plague