10 Days of the Decameron - Listverse 10 Days of the Decameron Listverse Staff December 10, 2007 The Decameron is a collection of 100 tales by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio written between 1350 and 1353. It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Many notable writers such as Shakespeare and Chaucer are said to have borrowed from it. The tale begins with 7 women and 3 men who move to a country villa to escape the Black Death in Florence. The group stays there for fourteen days and on ten of those days they each tell one tale on a set theme. Each day a different person is King or Queen and they decide what the theme will be. One character Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to tell a tale on any topic he wishes, due to his wit. This is the first list of many more to come, which will explore books that our readers may not have read. The aim is for us all to increase our literary knowledge.

If you would like to suggest books that may be worthwhile including in future lists, tell us in the comments. 1. Day One Under the rule of Pampinea, the first day of story telling is open topic. Although there is no assigned theme of the tales this first day, six deal with one person censuring another and four are satires of the Catholic Church. 2. Day Two Filomea reigns during the second day and she assigns a topic to each of the storytellers: Misadventures that suddenly end happily. 3. Day Three Neifile presides as queen during the third day. In these stories a person either has painfully acquired something or has lost it and then regained it. 4. Day Four Boccaccio begins this day with a defense of his work as it is thus far completed. Although he says that portions of the earlier days were circulating among the literate citizens of Tuscany while the work was in progress, this is doubtful. Instead, Boccaccio is probably just shooting down potential detractors. Filostrato reigns during the fourth day, in which the storytellers tell tales of lovers whose relationship ends in disaster. This is the first day a male storyteller reigns. 5.

Day Five During the fifth day Fiammetta sets the theme of tales where lovers pass through disasters before having their love end in good fortune. 6. Day Six During the sixth day of storytelling, Elissa is queen of the brigata and chooses for the theme stories in which a character avoids attack or embarrassment through a clever remark. Many stories in the sixth day do not have previous versions. Boccaccio may have invented many of them himself. He certainly was clever enough to have created the situations and the retorts. 7. Day Seven During the seventh day Dioneo serves as king of the brigata and sets the theme for the stories: tales in which wives play tricks on their husbands. Stories of this type are typical of the misogynistic sentiment of the Medieval era. However, in many of the stories the wives are portrayed as more intelligent and clever than their husbands. Though Boccaccio portrays many of the women of these stories in a positive light, most of the men in the stories are stereotypical medieval/Renaissance cuckolds. 8. Day Eight Lauretta reigns during the eighth day of storytelling. During this day the members of the group tell stories of tricks women play on men or that men play on women. 9.

Day Nine Emilia is queen of the brigata for the ninth day. For the second time there is no prescribed theme for the stories of the day (the only other time was during the first day). 10. Day Ten Panfilo is the king of the last day of storytelling and he orders the company to tell stories about deeds of munificence. These tales seem to escalate in their degrees of munificence until the end, where the day (and the entire Decameron) reaches an apex in the story of patient Griselda. Source: J. M. Rigg English translation (1903) The Decameron: Giovanni, Boccaccio: 9780394600710: Amazon.com: Books The Decameron: Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Editorial Reviews Review "The first and definitive diplomatic edition of Boccaccio's holograph MS...

From a strictly textual viewpoint, all other editions of The Decameron are now superseded." -- Reference Books in the Humanities --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Read more Language Notes Text: English, Italian (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . New York Times best sellers Browse the New York Times best sellers in popular categories like Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Books and more. See more Product Details Publisher: Random House (June 1955) Language: German Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds By Amazon Customer on February 11, 2016 Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase This is a classic! Good translation of a classic renaissance text, containing short stories. A group of nobles (the 1% from the 14th century) gather in the country to avoid the plague, and agree to tell each other stories to pass the time.

Note that the 4 questions Amazon 'lead-in" is silly: Plot: I guess full of surprises. Each story stands by itself uniquely. Mood: Ranges from dark to comedic to lighthearted to thoughtful. But they only let you check one box! Pace: Usually fast-paced, since each story has to last for just one "session." Characters: Many stereotypes (as one would expect!) so in these short shorts, no deep character analysis Buy Decameron Book Online at Low Prices in India | Decameron Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in 5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty in It's Simplest Form! 18 February 2015 By David Jarman - Published on Amazon.com Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase Boccaccio's The Decameron and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales will forever be some of the greatest literature that came out of medieval Europe. Who said that they were The Dark Ages? Much of the culture we have today stemmed out of this period. Anyway, this edition is wonderful in that it is a perfect size to carry around without looking like you are carrying around an encyclopedia!

Although this edition is great, I would not recommend to anyone who has trouble seeing as the print is rather small and pressed together. Other than that, I am in love with the book. If you are reading Boccaccio for the first time, I wish you luck and safe travels as you journey through the European countryside with our protagonists! 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful 1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this book 19 September 2010 By Sara - Published on Amazon.com Format: Paperback Verified Purchase This deserves zero stars, but this grading system indicates that "one star" means "I hate it", and I do. I needed the Decameron in Italian so I ordered and paid the big $43 plus for this book, through Amazon.com; and when it arrived this week I was very shocked at the poor quality. This is a very poorly scanned version of a real Decameron that has been bound in a pretty cover. Many pages are completely unreadable because they are blurry. Many other pages were scanned so quickly that only the left half or the right half of the page exists so that they are also unreadable.

If you actually need to read the Decameron in Italian, this is a total and complete waste of your money, as it was mine. I had to re-order the real thing in Italian from a reputable Italian bookstore in Italy. If you just want to have this very poorly scanned version of an old copy of the book, for historical reasons, go for it. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful 1.0 out of 5 stars NOT the book; this version 20 May 2014 By Tea&BookLover - Published on Amazon.com Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase I am speaking of the purple hardcover version by Biliobazaar. I have tried many times to keep reading this, but the writing is so very small I can only read for a few moments before my eyeballs start to hurt and get a headache. I thought maybe it was just me so I asked my husband and teenage daughter to read it too and they both said the same thing. If anyone knows of another, bigger (read-NORMAL) type, please advise!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful 3.0 out of 5 stars My feelings about The Decameron as an Old Man 31 August 2013 By brian - Published on Amazon.com Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase The trouble with this translation is its archaic language; I am now 84 so you would think I had a bit of a start in the language stakes but the 'whatsoeveras "s etc are a very big stumbling block. I read it first as a young man and cannot remember it being such a hindrance. Maybe when I say I read it I was a youth so maybe I just read the "dirty' bits and wasn't fussed about the language its different in my eighties. Is there a different translation ? 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful 4.0 out of 5 stars If you are particular about John Payne translation, go for it! 18 July 2013 By Arun - Published on Amazon.com Format: Paperback Verified Purchase Saying nothing about the work itself, since everyone knows about it. About the edition (Simon & Brown), this is the only one that gives you the complete John Payne translation of the work.

This is the translation available for free in Project Gutenberg. Excellent paper, font, binding, etc. with an awesome cover picture (though slightly pixelated which could have been avoided), well worth the price. One star less due to the size of the book which is rather huge like a telephone directory (10 x 7 inches!). Holding and reading long might be a bit painful to your forearms. Otherwise a great edition. I'm enjoying it right now. Decameron - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki Decameron: Wikis Advertisements Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics (Redirected to The Decameron article) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Decameron (disambiguation) . The Decameron (subtitle: Prencipe Galeotto) is a collection of 100 novellas by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio , probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1353.

It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Some believe many parts of the tales are indebted to the influence of The Book of Good Love . Many notable writers such as Chaucer are said to have drawn inspiration from The Decameron (See Literary sources and influence of the Decameron below). The title is a portmanteau of two Greek words meaning "ten" (δέκα déka) and "day" (ἡμέρα hēméra). [1] . Contents Illustration from a copy of The Decameron, ca. 1492, Venice . Decameron, painting by Sandro Botticelli from 1487 The Decameron is structured in a frame narrative , or frame tale. The Decameron played a part in the history of the novel and was finished by Giovanni Boccaccio in 1351. This work opens with a description of the Bubonic Plague ( Black Death ) and leads into an introduction of a group of seven young women and three young men who fled from Plague ridden Florence for a villa outside of the city walls.

To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for every one of the ten nights spent at the villa. The Decameron is a distinctive work, in that it describes in detail the physical, psychological and social effects that the Bubonic Plague had on that part of Europe. It is also interesting to note that a number of the stories contained within the Decameron would later appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. However, it is unclear as to whether or not Chaucer had known of the Decameron. One of the women, Pampinea, is elected Queen for the first day. Each day the company's previous king/queen elects who shall succeed them and nominates the theme for the current day's storytelling. Each day has a new theme assigned to it except for days 1 and 9: misfortunes that bring a person to a state of unexpected happiness; people who have achieved an object they greatly desired, or recovered a thing previously lost; love stories that ended unhappily; love that survived disaster; those who have avoided danger; tricks women have played on their husbands; tricks both men and women play on each other; those who have given very generously whether for love or another endeavor.

The subtitle is Prencipe Galeotto, which derives from the opening material in which Boccaccio dedicates the work to ladies of the day who did not have the diversions of men (hunting, fishing, riding, falconry) who were forced to conceal their amorous passions and stay idle and concealed in their rooms. Thus the book is subtitled Prencipe Galeotto, that is Galehaut , the go-between of Lancelot and Guinevere , a nod to Dante 's allusion to Galeotto in " Inferno V ", who was blamed for the arousal of lust in the episode of Paolo and Francesca . Boccaccio gives introductions and conclusions to each story which describe the days activities before and after the story-telling. These inserts frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs. From the interactions among tales told within a day (or across multiple days), Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material to form a cohesive whole which is more than just a collection of stories. Analysis From an edition of Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" showing Lady Fortune spinning her wheel. Beyond the unity provided by the frame narrative, Decameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook.

Throughout runs the common medieval theme of Lady Fortune , and how quickly one can rise and fall through the external influences of the " Wheel of Fortune ". Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante's Divine Comedy which used various levels of allegory to show the connections between the literal events of the story and the Christian message. However Decameron uses Dante's model, not to educate the reader but to satirize this method of learning. The Roman Catholic Church , priests, and religious belief become the satirical source of comedy throughout. This was part of a wider historical trend in the aftermath of the Black Death which saw widespread discontent with the church. Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance. For example, it is widely believed that the seven young women are meant to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and the Three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity). It is further supposed that the three men represent the classical Greek tripartite division of the soul (Reason, Spirit, and Lust, see Book IV of Republic ).

Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to the qualities of each". The Italian names of the seven women, in the same (most likely significant) order as given in the text, are: Pampinea (the flourishing one), Fiammetta (small flame), Filomena (faithful in love), Emilia (rival), Lauretta (wise, crowned with laurels), Neifile (cloudy), and Elissa (God is my vow). The men, in order, are: Panfilo (completely in love), Filostrato (overcome by love), and Dioneo (lustful). [2] A Tale from the Decameron by John William Waterhouse . Literary sources and influence of the Decameron The compelling way in which the tales were written and their almost exclusively Renaissance flair made the stories from the Decameron an irresistible source that many later writers borrowed from. Notable examples include: The famous first tale (I, 1) of the notorious Ser Ciappelletto was later translated into Latin by Olimpia Fulvia Morata and translated again by Voltaire .

Martin Luther retells tale I, 2, in which a Jew converts to Catholicism after visiting Rome and seeing the corruption of the Catholic hierarchy. However, in Luther's version (found in his "Table-talk #1899"), Luther and Philipp Melanchthon try to dissuade the Jew from visiting Rome. John Keats borrowed the tale of Lisabetta and her pot of basil (IV, 5) for his poem, Isabella, or the Pot of Basil . Lope de Vega also used parts of V, 4 for his play No son todos ruiseñores (They're Not All Nightingales). Christoph Martin Wieland 's set of six novellas Das Hexameron von Rosenhain is based on the structure of the Decameron. The title character in George Eliot 's historical novel Romola emulates Gostanza in tale V, 2, by buying a small boat and drifting out to sea to die, after she realizes that she no longer has anyone on whom she can depend. Tale V, 9 became the source for works by two famous nineteenth century writers in the English language.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used it in his "The Falcon of Ser Federigo" as part of Tales of a Wayside Inn in 1863. Alfred, Lord Tennyson used it in 1879 for a play entitled The Falcon. Molière also borrowed from tale VII, 4 in his George Dandin, ou le Mari Confondu (The Confounded Husband). In both stories the husband is convinced that he has accidentally caused his wife's suicide. The motif of the three trunks in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is found in tale X, 1. However, both Shakespeare and Boccaccio probably came upon the tale in Gesta Romanorum . At his death Percy Bysshe Shelley had left a fragment of a poem entitled "Ginevra", which he took from the first volume of an Italian book called L'Osservatore Fiorentino. The earlier Italian text had a plot taken from tale X, 4. Tale X, 5 shares its plot with Chaucer 's " The Franklin's Tale ", although this is not due to a direct borrowing from Boccaccio. Rather, both authors used a common French source.

The tale of patient Griselda (X, 10) was the source of Chaucer's " The Clerk's Tale ." However, there are some scholars that believe Chaucer may not have been directly familiar with the Decameron, and instead derived it from a Latin translation/retelling of that tale by Petrarch . Christine De Pizan often restructures tales from Decameron in her work "City of Ladies" Tzvetan Todorov used the Decameron as the basis for The Grammar of the Decameron (1969), an exploration of the general structure of all narrative. In the '60s, Hugh Hefner tried to adapt the bawdier stories from the Decameron into full-fledged pornography. The Charles Bukowski Novel Women (1978) was inspired by The Decameron. Paul Calandrino's play The Nincompoop (2007) casts Calandrino in a new tale in which the simpleton is inspired to paint the ceiling of his local church while Bruno and Buffalmacco plot new ways to humiliate him.

Steven James's mystery thriller novel The Knight (2009) depicts a serial killer who bases his murders off tales told in day four of The Decameron. Boccaccio, in turn, borrowed the plots of almost all of his stories. Although he only consulted French, Italian, and Latin sources, some of the tales have their ultimate origin in such far-off lands as India, Persia, Spain, and other places. Moreover, some were already centuries old. For example, part of the tale of Andreuccio of Perugia (II, 5) originated in second century Ephesus (in the Ephesian Tale ). The frame narrative structure (though not the characters or plot) originates from the Panchatantra , which was written in Sanskrit before 500 AD and came to Boccaccio through a chain of translations that includes Old Persian , Arabic , Hebrew , and Latin . Even the description of the central current event of the narrative, the Black Plague (which Boccaccio surely witnessed), is not original, but based on the Historia gentis Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon , who lived in the eighth century.

Some scholars have suggested that some of the tales for which there is no prior source may still have not have been invented by Boccaccio, but may have been circulating in the local oral tradition and Boccaccio may have just happened to be the first person that we know of to record them. Boccaccio himself says that he heard some of the tales orally. In VII, 1, for example, he claims to have heard the tale from an old woman who heard it as a child. However, just because Boccaccio borrowed the storylines that make up most of the Decameron doesn't mean he mechanically reproduced them. Most of the stories take place in the fourteenth century and have been sufficiently updated for the author's time that a reader may not know that they had been written centuries earlier or in a foreign culture. Also, Boccaccio often combined two or more unrelated tales into one (such as in II, 2 and VII, 7). Moreover, many of the characters actually existed, such as Giotto di Bondone , Guido Cavalcanti , Saladin and King William II of Sicily .

Scholars have even been able to verify the existence of less famous characters, such as the tricksters Bruno and Buffalmacco and their victim Calandrino . Still other fictional characters are based on real people, such as the Madonna Fiordaliso from tale II, 5, who is derived from a Madonna Flora that lived in the red light district of Naples. Boccaccio often intentionally muddled historical (II, 3) and geographical (V, 2) facts for his narrative purposes. Within the tales of the Decameron the principal characters are usually developed through their dialogue and actions so that by the end of the story they seem real and their actions logical given their context. Another of Boccaccio's frequent techniques was to make already existing tales more complex. A clear example of this is in tale IX, 6, which was also used by Chaucer in his " The Reeve's Tale ", but more closely follows the original French source than does Boccaccio's version. In the Italian version the host's wife (in addition to the two young male visitors) occupy all three beds and she also creates an explanation of the happenings of the evening.

Both elements are Boccaccio's invention and make for a more complex version than either Chaucer's version or the French source (a fabliau by Jean de Boves). Film adaptations A number of film adaptations have been based on tales from The Decameron. Pier Paolo Pasolini 's Decameron made in 1971 is one of the most famous. Virgin Territory , an R-rated comedy film, was produced by Dino De Laurentiis in 2007. Boccaccio's doodles Since the Decameron was very popular among contemporaries, especially merchants, there is an enormous quantity of ancient manuscripts of it. The Italian philologist Vittore Branca did a comprehensive survey of all of them and identified a few copied under Boccaccio's supervision; some acually have notes written in Boccaccio's hand. Two in particular have elaborate drawings, probably done by Boccaccio himself. Since these manuscripts were widely circulated, Branca thought that they influenced all subsequent illustrations.

Tales from the Decameron The Decameron : Wikis (The Full Wiki) The Full Wiki More info on The Decameron Wikis Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics Top rankings for The Decameron 100th For other uses, see Decameron (disambiguation) . The Decameron (subtitle: Prencipe Galeotto) is a collection of 100 novellas by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio , probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1353. It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Some believe many parts of the tales are indebted to the influence of The Book of Good Love . Many notable writers such as Chaucer are said to have drawn inspiration from The Decameron (See Literary sources and influence of the Decameron below).

The title is a portmanteau of two Greek words meaning "ten" (δέκα déka) and "day" (ἡμέρα hēméra). [1] . Contents Illustration from a copy of The Decameron, ca. 1492, Venice . Decameron, painting by Sandro Botticelli from 1487 The Decameron is structured in a frame narrative , or frame tale. The Decameron played a part in the history of the novel and was finished by Giovanni Boccaccio in 1351. This work opens with a description of the Bubonic Plague ( Black Death ) and leads into an introduction of a group of seven young women and three young men who fled from Plague ridden Florence for a villa outside of the city walls. To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for every one of the ten nights spent at the villa. The Decameron is a distinctive work, in that it describes in detail the physical, psychological and social effects that the Bubonic Plague had on that part of Europe.

It is also interesting to note that a number of the stories contained within the Decameron would later appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. However, it is unclear as to whether or not Chaucer had known of the Decameron. One of the women, Pampinea, is elected Queen for the first day. Each day the company's previous king/queen elects who shall succeed them and nominates the theme for the current day's storytelling. Each day has a new theme assigned to it except for days 1 and 9: misfortunes that bring a person to a state of unexpected happiness; people who have achieved an object they greatly desired, or recovered a thing previously lost; love stories that ended unhappily; love that survived disaster; those who have avoided danger; tricks women have played on their husbands; tricks both men and women play on each other; those who have given very generously whether for love or another endeavor.

The subtitle is Prencipe Galeotto, which derives from the opening material in which Boccaccio dedicates the work to ladies of the day who did not have the diversions of men (hunting, fishing, riding, falconry) who were forced to conceal their amorous passions and stay idle and concealed in their rooms. Thus the book is subtitled Prencipe Galeotto, that is Galehaut , the go-between of Lancelot and Guinevere , a nod to Dante 's allusion to Galeotto in " Inferno V ", who was blamed for the arousal of lust in the episode of Paolo and Francesca . Boccaccio gives introductions and conclusions to each story which describe the days activities before and after the story-telling. These inserts frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs. From the interactions among tales told within a day (or across multiple days), Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material to form a cohesive whole which is more than just a collection of stories. Analysis From an edition of Boccaccio's "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" showing Lady Fortune spinning her wheel. Beyond the unity provided by the frame narrative, Decameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook.

Throughout runs the common medieval theme of Lady Fortune , and how quickly one can rise and fall through the external influences of the " Wheel of Fortune ". Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante's Divine Comedy which used various levels of allegory to show the connections between the literal events of the story and the Christian message. However Decameron uses Dante's model, not to educate the reader but to satirize this method of learning. The Roman Catholic Church , priests, and religious belief become the satirical source of comedy throughout. This was part of a wider historical trend in the aftermath of the Black Death which saw widespread discontent with the church. Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance. For example, it is widely believed that the seven young women are meant to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and the Three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity). It is further supposed that the three men represent the classical Greek tripartite division of the soul (Reason, Spirit, and Lust, see Book IV of Republic ).

Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to the qualities of each". The Italian names of the seven women, in the same (most likely significant) order as given in the text, are: Pampinea (the flourishing one), Fiammetta (small flame), Filomena (faithful in love), Emilia (rival), Lauretta (wise, crowned with laurels), Neifile (cloudy), and Elissa (God is my vow). The men, in order, are: Panfilo (completely in love), Filostrato (overcome by love), and Dioneo (lustful). [2] A Tale from the Decameron by John William Waterhouse . Literary sources and influence of the Decameron The compelling way in which the tales were written and their almost exclusively Renaissance flair made the stories from the Decameron an irresistible source that many later writers borrowed from. Notable examples include: The famous first tale (I, 1) of the notorious Ser Ciappelletto was later translated into Latin by Olimpia Fulvia Morata and translated again by Voltaire .

Martin Luther retells tale I, 2, in which a Jew converts to Catholicism after visiting Rome and seeing the corruption of the Catholic hierarchy. However, in Luther's version (found in his "Table-talk #1899"), Luther and Philipp Melanchthon try to dissuade the Jew from visiting Rome. John Keats borrowed the tale of Lisabetta and her pot of basil (IV, 5) for his poem, Isabella, or the Pot of Basil . Lope de Vega also used parts of V, 4 for his play No son todos ruiseñores (They're Not All Nightingales). Christoph Martin Wieland 's set of six novellas Das Hexameron von Rosenhain is based on the structure of the Decameron. The title character in George Eliot 's historical novel Romola emulates Gostanza in tale V, 2, by buying a small boat and drifting out to sea to die, after she realizes that she no longer has anyone on whom she can depend. Tale V, 9 became the source for works by two famous nineteenth century writers in the English language.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used it in his "The Falcon of Ser Federigo" as part of Tales of a Wayside Inn in 1863. Alfred, Lord Tennyson used it in 1879 for a play entitled The Falcon. Molière also borrowed from tale VII, 4 in his George Dandin, ou le Mari Confondu (The Confounded Husband). In both stories the husband is convinced that he has accidentally caused his wife's suicide. The motif of the three trunks in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is found in tale X, 1. However, both Shakespeare and Boccaccio probably came upon the tale in Gesta Romanorum . At his death Percy Bysshe Shelley had left a fragment of a poem entitled "Ginevra", which he took from the first volume of an Italian book called L'Osservatore Fiorentino. The earlier Italian text had a plot taken from tale X, 4. Tale X, 5 shares its plot with Chaucer 's " The Franklin's Tale ", although this is not due to a direct borrowing from Boccaccio. Rather, both authors used a common French source.

The tale of patient Griselda (X, 10) was the source of Chaucer's " The Clerk's Tale ." However, there are some scholars that believe Chaucer may not have been directly familiar with the Decameron, and instead derived it from a Latin translation/retelling of that tale by Petrarch . Christine De Pizan often restructures tales from Decameron in her work "City of Ladies" Tzvetan Todorov used the Decameron as the basis for The Grammar of the Decameron (1969), an exploration of the general structure of all narrative. In the '60s, Hugh Hefner tried to adapt the bawdier stories from the Decameron into full-fledged pornography. The Charles Bukowski Novel Women (1978) was inspired by The Decameron. Paul Calandrino's play The Nincompoop (2007) casts Calandrino in a new tale in which the simpleton is inspired to paint the ceiling of his local church while Bruno and Buffalmacco plot new ways to humiliate him.

Steven James's mystery thriller novel The Knight (2009) depicts a serial killer who bases his murders off tales told in day four of The Decameron. Boccaccio, in turn, borrowed the plots of almost all of his stories. Although he only consulted French, Italian, and Latin sources, some of the tales have their ultimate origin in such far-off lands as India, Persia, Spain, and other places. Moreover, some were already centuries old. For example, part of the tale of Andreuccio of Perugia (II, 5) originated in second century Ephesus (in the Ephesian Tale ). The frame narrative structure (though not the characters or plot) originates from the Panchatantra , which was written in Sanskrit before 500 AD and came to Boccaccio through a chain of translations that includes Old Persian , Arabic , Hebrew , and Latin . Even the description of the central current event of the narrative, the Black Plague (which Boccaccio surely witnessed), is not original, but based on the Historia gentis Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon , who lived in the eighth century.

Some scholars have suggested that some of the tales for which there is no prior source may still have not have been invented by Boccaccio, but may have been circulating in the local oral tradition and Boccaccio may have just happened to be the first person that we know of to record them. Boccaccio himself says that he heard some of the tales orally. In VII, 1, for example, he claims to have heard the tale from an old woman who heard it as a child. However, just because Boccaccio borrowed the storylines that make up most of the Decameron doesn't mean he mechanically reproduced them. Most of the stories take place in the fourteenth century and have been sufficiently updated for the author's time that a reader may not know that they had been written centuries earlier or in a foreign culture. Also, Boccaccio often combined two or more unrelated tales into one (such as in II, 2 and VII, 7). Moreover, many of the characters actually existed, such as Giotto di Bondone , Guido Cavalcanti , Saladin and King William II of Sicily .

Scholars have even been able to verify the existence of less famous characters, such as the tricksters Bruno and Buffalmacco and their victim Calandrino . Still other fictional characters are based on real people, such as the Madonna Fiordaliso from tale II, 5, who is derived from a Madonna Flora that lived in the red light district of Naples. Boccaccio often intentionally muddled historical (II, 3) and geographical (V, 2) facts for his narrative purposes. Within the tales of the Decameron the principal characters are usually developed through their dialogue and actions so that by the end of the story they seem real and their actions logical given their context. Another of Boccaccio's frequent techniques was to make already existing tales more complex. A clear example of this is in tale IX, 6, which was also used by Chaucer in his " The Reeve's Tale ", but more closely follows the original French source than does Boccaccio's version. In the Italian version the host's wife (in addition to the two young male visitors) occupy all three beds and she also creates an explanation of the happenings of the evening.

Both elements are Boccaccio's invention and make for a more complex version than either Chaucer's version or the French source (a fabliau by Jean de Boves). Film adaptations A number of film adaptations have been based on tales from The Decameron. Pier Paolo Pasolini 's Decameron made in 1971 is one of the most famous. Virgin Territory , an R-rated comedy film, was produced by Dino De Laurentiis in 2007. Boccaccio's doodles Since the Decameron was very popular among contemporaries, especially merchants, there is an enormous quantity of ancient manuscripts of it. The Italian philologist Vittore Branca did a comprehensive survey of all of them and identified a few copied under Boccaccio's supervision; some acually have notes written in Boccaccio's hand. Two in particular have elaborate drawings, probably done by Boccaccio himself. Since these manuscripts were widely circulated, Branca thought that they influenced all subsequent illustrations.

Tales from the Decameron PPT - The Decameron PowerPoint Presentation - ID:2648814 Boccaccio His life Giovanni Boccaccio(1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular. Boccaccio is particularly notable for his dialogue, and he surpasses in verisimilitude his contemporaries. Boccaccio grew up in Florence. His father was working for the Compagnia dei Bardi and in the 1320s married Margherita dei Mardoli. Boccaccio travels to Naples with his father, agent of the Bardi Bank. In 1332 Boccaccino moves to Paris. Giovanni, with greater freedom, pursues his humanistic interests in literature as is attested by his first essays in Latin (the Elegia di Costanza and the Allegoria mitologica, both certainly composed before 1334) and his first vernacular poetry.

Boccaccio began work on the Decameron around 1349. The work was largely complete by 1352. Boccaccio revised and rewrote the Decameron in 1370-1371. This manuscript has survived to the present day. He died at the age of sixty-two on 21 December 1375 in Certaldo, where he is buried. The works of Giovanni Boccaccio De CasibusVirorumIllustrium Corbaccio The Filocolo The Filocolo, is a novel written by Giovanni Boccaccio between 1335-36. It is considered to be the first novel of Italian literature written in prose. It is based on a very popular story of the time, Florio e Biancifiore. Il Filostrato Il Filostrato is a poem by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, and the inspiration for Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Cryseide and, through Chaucer, the Shakespare play Troilus and Cressida.

It is itself loosely based on Le Roman de Troie, by 12th century poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure. TheDecameron Principe Galeotto The Decameron (subtitle: Prencipe Galeotto) is a collection of 100 novellas by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1353. It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Some believe many parts of the tales are indebted to the influence of The Book of Good Love. The title is a portmanteau of two Greek words meaning "ten" (δέκα déka) and "day" (ἡμέρα hēméra). The Decameron is structured in a frame narrative, or frame tale. This work opens with a description of the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) and leads into an introduction of a group of seven young women and three young men who fled from Plague ridden Florence for a villa outside of the city walls.

To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for every one of the ten nights spent atthe villa. The Decameron is a distinctive work, in that it describes in detail the physical, psychological and social effects that the Bubonic Plague had on that part of Europe. One of the women, Pampinea, is elected Queen for the first day. Each day the company's previous king/queen elects who shall succeed them and nominates the theme for the current day's storytelling. Each day has a new theme assigned to it except for days 1 and 9. Days’ Themes: Misfortunes that bring a person to a state of unexpected happiness; people who have achieved an object they greatly desired, or recovered a thing previously lost; love stories that ended unhappily; love that survived disaster; those who have avoided danger; tricks women have played on their husbands; tricks both men and women play on each other; those who have given very generously whether for love or another endeavor. Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante's Divine Comedy which used various levels of allegory to show the connections between the literal events of the story and the Christian message.

However Decameron uses Dante's model, not to educate the reader but to satirize this method of learning. THE DECAMERON The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the greatest works of Italian prose. It was written between 1348 and 1353. The sixth day Ended the fifth day of the Decameron, began the sixth, wherein, under the rule of Elisa, discourse is had of such as by some sprightly sally have repulsed an attack, or by some ready retort or device have avoided loss, peril or scorn. Chichibio and The Crane This short story belongs to the sixth day, dedicated to witticism thanks to which the protagonists get out of sticky spots. The Venetian cook Chichibio manages to overcome a difficult situation caused by his carelessness and indulgence in love affairs. CurradoGianfigliazzi, an eminent citizen of Florence and a passionate hunter, one day killed a crane and sent it to his cook, Chichibio, to have it cooked for dinner. The smell of the crane attracted a young woman, Brunetta, a flirt of Chichibio’s, who asked him a leg of the bird.

Chichibio refused at first, but then the woman managed to convince him by saying that if he didn’t give her a leg of the crane, she would never submit to his desire. At dinner-time, Currado, very surprised, asked Chichibio why the crane had only one leg, and he replied that cranes, indeed, are single legged birds and if the Master didn’t believe that, he would show him the following morning. Corrado accepted, but he threatened that if he found out that Chichibio had lied to him, he would beat him to death. The next morning they went to a river where some cranes were sleeping, resting on a single leg. Chichibio made his master notice that he had not lied, since the cranes were standing on one leg. At this remark, Currado galloped towards the river shouting and all the cranes flew away, clearly showing two legs. Currado, enraged, asked Chichibio to explain himself, and the cook, knowing that only a witty remark could save him, said that Currado had not shouted at dinner the night before. If he had, the crane in his plate would have shown the other leg.

Amused by Chichibio’s cunning, Currado laughed and forgave him. The ten novels of sixth day The First Novel A knight offers to carry Madonna Oretta a horseback with a story, but tells it so ill that she prays him to dismount her; Filomena narrates this tale. The Second Novel Cisti, a baker, by an apt speech gives Messer Geri Spina to know that he has by inadvertence asked that of him which he should not; Pampinea narrates it. The Third Novel MonnaNonna de' Pulci by a ready retort silences the scarce seemly jesting of the Bishop of Florence;Lauretta narrates it. The Fourth Novel Chichibio, CurradoGianfigliazzi’s cook, owes his safety to a ready answer, whereby he converts Currado's wrath into laughter, and evades the evil fate with which Currado had threatened him; Neifile narrates it.

The Fifth Novel Messer ForesedaRabatta, a knowledgeable jurist, and Master Giotto, a painter, make fun of each other's poor appearance while returning from Mugello; Panfilo narrates this tale. The Sixth Novel Michele Scalza proves to certain young men that the Baronci are the best gentlemen in the world and the Maremma, and wins a supper; Fiammetta narrates it. The Seventh Novel Madonna Filippa, being found by her husband with her lover, is cited before the court, and by a ready and clever answer acquits herself, and brings about an alteration of the statute; Filostrato narrates this tale. The Eighth Novel Fresco admonishes his niece not to look at herself in the glass, if it is, as she says, grievous to her to see nasty folk; Emilia narrates. The Ninth Novel Guido Cavalcanti by a quip meetly rebukes certain Florentine gentlemen who had taken him at a disadvantage; Elissanarratesit.

The Tenth Novel Friar Cipolla promises to show certain country-folk a feather of the Angel Gabriel, in lieu of which he finds coals, which he avers to be of those with which Saint Lawrence was roasted; Dioneo narrates this story. This power of transformation, of ennobling the character of the lover, is the distinguishing characteristic of Courtly Love. Courtly love is something entirely new in Europe, and the major source of our modern ideas about romantic love. Courtly love: be wise and restrained in conduct be generous and charitable offer service to all ladies do what is pleasing to your loved one associate with good men; avoid the wicked jealousy increases love

Question: What is the name of 100 novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio, a medieval allegorical work known for its bawdy tales of love from the erotic to the tragic, which were probably written in the 1350s?
Answer: The Decameron