The Stories of the Decameron

The Decameron begins with the flight of 10 young people (7 women and 3 men) from plague-stricken Florence in 1348. They retire to a rich, well-watered countryside, where, in the course of a fortnight, each member of the party has a turn as king or queen over the others, deciding in detail how their day shall be spent and directing their leisurely walks, their outdoor conversations, their dances and songs, and, above all, their alternate storytelling.

This storytelling occupies 10 days of the fortnight (the rest being set aside for personal adornment or for religious devotions); hence the title of the book itself, Decameron, or "Ten Days' Work." The stories thus amount to 100 in all. Each of the days, moreover, ends with a canzone (song) for dancing sung by one of the storytellers, and these canzoni include some of Boccaccio's finest lyric poetry.

Between 1348 and 1353, Boccaccio wrote this famous work: The Decameron. The title itself is Greek and means "10 Days" (Deca-hemeron), but the book is written in Italian. The Decameron is a collection of 100 stories, told by ten storytellers over a ten day period of time. Unlike Dante's Divine Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which were written as poetry, Boccaccio's Decameron is a work in prose.

Although the Decameron is primarily known as a humorous work, the frametale and background is very gloomy! In order to explain why 10 people would get together and tell stories to each other every day, Boccaccio invents a frametale about the Black Death (bubonic plague) which was ravaging Florence at the time that he began writing the Decameron.

Boccaccio borrowed the plots of almost all of his stories. Although he had access to just 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 (Day II, Story 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.

Because of the horrible devastation caused by this epidemic, Boccaccio tells us that seven noble young women and three noble young men decided to escape to the countryside. They would be safe from the plague there and could spend their time in amusing one another with stories and games and dances.

Many of the stories in the Decameron are extremely humorous, often involving the illicit sexual escapades of monks and their lady lovers. There are also some tragic love stories in the Decameron.

So there are 10 storytellers and each person tells one story each day over 10 days, making 100 stories altogether.

Every story is identified with 2 numbers - the story number and the day number. The stories are always in the same order - the order they were written by Boccaccio.

THE FIRST DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.


THE SECOND DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE THIRD DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE FOURTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE FIFTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE SIXTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE SEVENTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE EIGHTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE NINTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.

THE TENTH DAY
The First Story.
The Second Story.
The Third Story.
The Fourth Story.
The Fifth Story.
The Sixth Story.
The Seventh Story.
The Eighth Story.
The Ninth Story.
The Tenth Story.