Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example on Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Boccaccio lived in a period of transition, when a new and powerful mercantile class had emerged as economic prosperity took cities like Florence by storm. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons contribute to the mosaic. The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Boccaccio probably conceived the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348, and completed it by 1353. The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. the novel and was finished by Giovanni Boccaccio in 1351. The Decameron is a collection of novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The Decameron (subtitle: Prencipe Galeotto) is a collection of 100 novellas by Italian author. Folio, 2 volumes, bound in full morocco by Riviere, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, all edges gilt, errata leaf at end of volume one, B1 is a cancellans, woodcut titles each with 6 vignettes, 98 woodcut vignettes in text chiefly repeating the title vignettes, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces. $60,000.00 Item Number: 128726įirst edition in English of Boccaccio’s masterpiece, published by Jaggard published three years prior to his printing of the Shakespeare First Folio.

The decameron of boccaccio book