Description
Book SynopsisThis edition presents 33 of the 100 tales, with at least two from each of the ten days of storytelling. Boccaccio’s general introduction and conclusion to the work are also included, as are the introduction and conclusion to the first day; the reader is thus provided with a real sense of the Decameron’s framing narrative. Extensive explanatory notes are provided, and the volume is prefaced by a concise but wide-ranging introduction to Boccaccio’s life and times, as well as to the Decameron itself. A unique selection of contextual materials concludes the volume.
Trade Review“Furnished with an engaging selection of tales, a formidable apparatus of primary texts and reproductions [from the] visual arts, this is an ideal text for a course in English on Boccaccio’s
Decameron. The translators have struck an enviable balance between the colloquial valences of the dialogue and the more formal moments of its register, all while untangling the complex syntax that can be daunting to the non-specialist….This is a
Decameron that is accessible and comprehensible, inviting the general reader into its rich narrative world.” —Kristina M. Olson, George Mason University
“Boccaccio… is unsurpassed in the illuminating perspective from which he explores the variety of dramas of his characters in their day to day interactions,… [and this] rendition of the
Decameron is extraordinary: it breathes fresh life into this classic of world literature.” —Giuseppe Mazzotta, Sterling Professor in the Humanities for Italian, Yale University
“The translators have provided a smart and engaging selection of the best tales of the
Decameron. Their lively prose translation successfully captures the oral scene of storytelling that is central to the book while still attending to important specifics of Boccaccio’s language. A carefully conceived collection of secondary readings completes this volume, which will allow readers to enjoy Boccaccio’s masterpiece from a variety of perspectives.” —Michael Sherberg, Washington University
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction from The Decameron
- The Author’s Preface
- Introduction to the First Day
- The First Day
- I. Story 1: Cepparello’s False Confession
- I. Story 2: The Jew who Sees Rome and Converts
- I. Story 3: Melchisedech and the Tale of the Three Rings
- I. Story 5: The King of France and the Banquet of Hens
- I. Story 10: Master Alberto Shames the Woman who Refuses his Love
- Conclusion to the First Day
- The Second Day
- II. Story 5: Andreuccio’s Three Misadventures in Naples
- II. Story 7: The Sultan’s Daughter Sleeps with Nine Men and Returns a Virgin
- The Third Day
- III. Story 1: Masetto becomes Gardener to a Convent
- III. Story 6: Ricciardo sends a Jealous Wife to the Baths to catch her Husband
- III. Story 8: Ferondo visits Purgatory
- III. Story 9: Giletta of Narbonne
- III. Story 10: Alibech and Rustico put the Devil back into Hell
- The Fourth Day
- Introduction
- IV. Story 1: Tancredi, Ghismunda, and her Lover’s Heart
- IV. Story 2: Frate Alberto as the Angel Gabriel
- IV. Story 5: Lisabetta and the Pot of Basil
- IV. Story 8: The Broken Hearts of Girolamo and Salvestra
- The Fifth Day
- V. Story 1: Cimone and Lisimaco Abduct their Brides
- V. Story 4: The Lovers, the Balcony, and the Nightingale
- The Sixth Day
- VI. Story 1: Madonna Oretta and the Story Ride
- VI. Story 4: Chichibio and the One-legged Bird
- VI. Story 7: Donna Filippa Confronts the Adultery Laws
- VI. Story 9: Guido Cavalcanti’s Witty Escape
- The Seventh Day
- VII. Story 2: Peronella’s Lover and the Barrel
- VII. Story 6: A Quick-Thinking Adulteress
- The Eighth Day
- VIII. Story 3: Calendrino and the Heliotrope Stone
- VIII. Story 7: The Scholar Frozen and the Lady Burned
- The Ninth Day
- IX. Story 5: Calandrino in Love
- IX. Story 6: Three Beds and a Cradle
- IX. Story 10: The Spell that Turns Women to Mares
- The Tenth Day
- X. Story 3: Nathan Offers his Life
- X. Story 5: A Lady’s Honour for a Garden in Winter
- X. Story 8: The Perfect Friendship of Tito and Gisippus
- X. Story 10: Griselda’s Remarkable Patience
- The Author’s Epilogue
- In Context
- The Black Death
- from Marchione di Coppo Stefani, from The Florentine Chronicle (ca. 1389), “Concerning the Black Death in the City of Florence, Mortal to Many People,”
- The Black Death: fourteenth century images
- Accounts of Boccaccio’s Life
- Giannozzo Manetti, “The Life of Giovanni Boccaccio”
- Ludovico Dolce, “A Description of the Life of Messer Giovanni Boccaccio” (1552)
- Sources and Antecedents
- from Apuleius, The Golden Ass: from Book Nine, “The Lover in the Barrel” (c. 160 CE)
- from Petrus Alphonsus, Disciplina Clericalis, “The Two Perfect Friends,” (12th century)
- from Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love (c. 1180)
- Anonymous, “Concerning a Priest and a Lady” (13th century)
- from Anonymous, Il novellino (1281-1300)
- How a king raised his son in darkness, then revealed to him all there was in the world, and how the boy found women above all things the most pleasing.”
- “How the Sultan in search of money tried to snare a Jew through litigation.”
- “The never-ending story.”
- from Giovanni Boccaccio, The Questions of Love: “The Fourth Question, as proposed by Menedon” (1335-36)
- The Tale of Patient Griselda
- from Francesco Petrarch, Letter to Boccaccio on “The Tale of Patient Griselda” (1373)
- Anonymous, “A Most Pleasant Ballad of Patient Grissell” (ca. 1600)
- Patterns of Influence
- from Sir Thomas Elyot, The Book Named the Governour: from Bk. II, Chap. 12, “The Wonderful History of Titus and Gisippus, whereby is fully declared the figure of perfect amity.” (1531)
- from Giovan Francesco Straparola, The Pleasant Nights (Piacevoli notti) (1550, 1553)
- from the Proem
- Rodolino and Violante, or The Broken Hearts
- Illustrations to the Decameron
