When Black Death visited the city of Florence in 1348, those who could leave the city did. And it is just such a journey that Boccaccio in his classic The Decameron masterfully describes. Ten upper class young ladies and young gentlemen journey leisurely out of Florence, stopping at well-appointed chateaus, surrounded by the beauty of nature. There, in these bucolic settings, they take turns in telling one hundred fascinating stories. These stories are about kings and dukes and wealthy merchants, but also about common city dwellers and rustics of the countryside. The stories moralize; praise the wise and virtuous and disparage the foolish and wicked. The work glories in human ingenuity, showing that even the most daunting conditions can be overcome by human creativity. But mostly the work is about love and its many varieties. Those who join us will not only be entertained by these tales, but also see how people separated from us by seven centuries were essentially not different from us.
Weekly Topics
Week Topic Presenter
1 Introduction, pp. 1-70 Jack Kaczorowski
2 pp.71 -147 Dianne Hantos
3 pp. 148- 215
4 pp. 215-283
5 pp. 284-348
6 pp. 349-411
7 pp. 411-468
8 pp. 469-532
9 pp. 533 -585
10 pp. 585-647
11 pp 647-726
12 pp 726- 802
Bibliography
Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron, (
Penguin Books, 2003)
Power Point Presentation of contemporary illustrations of Decameron
( furnished by the coordinator)