The Decameron

The Decameron is a book by Giovanni Boccaccio that contains 100 tales, originally in Italian. It is estimated to have been written between 1349 and 1353.

The book contains a group of stories united by a frame story. It is about 10 young people who fled Florence because of the plague. They get together daily and everyone tells a story. Each day, they choose another king or queen who decides on the theme for the stories of the day. The tales have different subjects, ranging from humorous to tragic, and each day ends with a ballade.

The work is regarded as a masterpiece, which greatly influenced the development of Renaissance literature--away from the themes of medieval literature, to a more modern one.

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