Curators' Statement

The fifth story on the fourth day of Boccaccio's The Decameron tells a harrowing story of love, loss, and grief. A woman named Lisabetta keeps her murdered lover's head in a pot of basil and mourns over it until it is finally taken from her, leading to her tragic death from a broken heart. The macabre nature of this tale has captivated other artists, poets, and writers for centuries as it explores the nature of love and grief and their effects on the human psyche, but the tale itself was inspired by a long cultural history of the uses of basil. This digital exhibit seeks to explore and understand the cultural, literary, and religious significance of basil in order to provide a deeper insight to Lisabetta's story and to The Decameron as a complete work.