Soon, they assemble three gentlemen linked to them by kinship or by affection-Filostrato, Dioneo, and Panfilo-and the ten young people decamp at dawn for the countryside. The other women say that they’d love to, but they think they should bring some men along. Let’s get out of here, Pampinea, the eldest, says.

They range in age from eighteen to twenty-eight, and they are all of genteel birth. Seven young ladies, friends-Pampinea, Filomena, Neifile, Fiammetta, Elissa, Lauretta, and Emilia-meet after Mass. An estimated sixty per cent of the population of Florence and the surrounding countryside died.Īnd so begins the Decameron. Much of the Decameron, of course, is written tongue in cheek, and it is up to the reader to draw the lesson.Shops stood empty. I would caution those who think of the Decameron as the celebration of 'romantic activity.' The ten young storytellers who escape the city abstain from any sexual activity in order to tell their stories, including those that celebrate sex or warn about the dangerous or even lethal consequences of 'mad love,' jealousy and other forms of excessive erotic behavior.

Kean Collection // Getty Images Have you seen/heard the recent coinage 'Coronavirus and Chill,' which describes a supposed increase of romantic activity because people are cooped up together? Is there a parallel to be drawn to the erotic stories in the Decameron? This decision can be interpreted in two different and somewhat opposite ways: as an escape from the common destiny of those who can afford a luxurious shelter (similar to the doomsday bunkers that very rich people build for themselves today) and as the utopian desire to rebuild together a better, more ethical and harmoniously natural way of life, out of the ruins of the old world.Īn engraving of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), known as the father of classic Italian prose. I would point to the ethical dilemma the ten young protagonists face in their decision to (temporarily) abandon the city. Beyond the obvious similarities of the book’s protagonists escaping to a villa and Americans holing up in their homes, what themes should contemporary readers look for when reading Boccaccio's text today?

Boccaccio's masterpiece is often quoted or described in relation to its temporal setting, the time of the great plague (a different disease, of course, albeit, coincidentally also originated in the 'Far East') that wiped out half the population of 14th-century Florence. Do you think the recent spike in interest in the Decameron is tied to the spread of the coronavirus? T&C reached out to Massimo Riva, chair of Brown University’s Italian Studies Department and co-editor of Decameron Web, to ask about the renewed popularity of the book Boccaccio completed more than 600 years ago. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play

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