The Decameron (/dɪˈkæmərən/;Italian:Decameron[deˈkaːmeron,dekameˈrɔn,-ˈron] orDecamerone[dekameˈroːne]), subtitledPrince Galehaut (Old Italian:Prencipe Galeotto[ˈprentʃipeɡaleˈɔtto,ˈprɛn-]) and sometimes nicknamedl'Umana commedia ("the Humancomedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbedDante Alighieri'sComedy "Divine"), is a collection ofshort stories by the 14th-century Italian authorGiovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as aframe story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outsideFlorence in order to escape theBlack Death, which was afflicting the city. The epidemic is likely what Boccaccio used for the basis of the book which was thought to be written between 1348 and 1353. The various tales of love inThe Decameron range from theerotic to thetragic. Tales of wit,practical jokes, and life lessons also contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example onChaucer'sCanterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Written in thevernacular of theFlorentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of early Italian prose.[1]
The book's primary title exemplifies Boccaccio's fondness for Greekphilology:Decameron combinesGreekδέκα,déka ("ten") andἡμέρα,hēméra ("day") to mean "ten-day [event]",[2] referring to the period in which the characters of the frame story tell their tales.
Boccaccio's subtitle,Prencipe Galeotto, refers toGalehaut, a fictional king portrayed in the 13th-centuryLancelot-Grail who was sometimes called by the titlehaut prince "high prince". Galehaut was a close friend ofLancelot, but an enemy ofKing Arthur. When Galehaut learned that Lancelot loved Arthur's wife,Guinevere, he set aside his own ardor for Lancelot in order to arrange a meeting between his friend and Guinevere. At this meeting the Queen first kisses Lancelot, and so begins their love affair.
InCanto V ofInferno,Dante compares these fictional lovers with the real-lifeparamoursFrancesca da Rimini andPaolo Malatesta, whose relationship he fictionalises. InInferno, Francesca and Paolo read of Lancelot and Guinevere, and the story impassions them to lovemaking.
Dante's description of Galehaut's munificence and savoir-faire amidst this intrigue impressed Boccaccio. By invoking the namePrencipe Galeotto in the alternative title toDecameron, Boccaccio alludes to a sentiment he expresses in the text: his compassion for women deprived of free speech and social liberty, confined to their homes and, at times,lovesick. He contrasts this life with that of the men free to enjoy hunting, fishing, riding, and falconry.[3]
In Italy during the time of theBlack Death, a group of seven young women and three young men flee from plague-riddenFlorence to a deserted villa in the countryside ofFiesole for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights ofstorytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of thefortnight they have told100 stories.
Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of the company for one of the ten days in turn. This charge extends to choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue. Due to his wit, Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, is allowed to select any topic he wishes.[5][6]
Many commentators have argued that Dioneo expresses the views of Boccaccio himself.[7] Each day also includes a short introduction and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by describing other daily activities besides story-telling. These framing interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs.[8] The interactions among tales in a day, or across days, as Boccaccio spinsvariations and reversals of previous material, forms a whole and not just a collection of stories. Recurring plots of the stories include mocking the lust and greed of the clergy; female lust and ambition on par with male lust and ambition; tensions in Italian society between the new wealthy commercial class and noble families; and the perils and adventures of traveling merchants.[9]
Beyond the unity provided by the frame narrative, theDecameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook. Throughout runs the common medieval theme ofLady Fortune, and how quickly one can rise and fall through the external influences of the "Wheel of Fortune". Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante'sDivine Comedy, which used various levels ofallegory to show the connections between the literal events of the story and the Christian message. However, theDecameron uses Dante's model not to educate the reader but to satirize this method of learning. TheCatholic Church, priests, and religious belief become the satirical source of comedy throughout. This was part of a wider historical trend in the aftermath of the Black Death which saw widespread discontent with the church. Many details of theDecameron are infused with amedieval sense ofnumerological and mystical significance.[10] For example, it is widely believed[by whom?] that the seven young women are meant to represent theFour Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and theThree Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity). It is further supposed[by whom?] that the three men represent the classical Greek tripartite division of the soul (Reason, Spirit, and Appetite, see Book IV ofRepublic). Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in factpseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to the qualities of each". The Italian names of the seven women, in the same (most likely significant) order as given in the text, are Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emilia, Lauretta, Neifile, and Elissa. The men, in order, are Panfilo, Filostrato, and Dioneo.[citation needed]
The Banquet in the Pine Forest (1482/3) is the third painting inSandro Botticelli's seriesThe Story of Nastagio degli Onesti, which illustrates events from the Eighth Story of the Fifth Day.
Boccaccio borrowed the plots of almost all his stories (just as later writers borrowed from him).[citation needed] Although he consulted only French, Italian and Latin sources, some of the tales have their origin in such far-off lands as India, the Middle East, Spain, and other places.[citation needed] Some were already centuries old. For example, part of the tale of Andreuccio of Perugia (Day II, Story 5) originated in 2nd-century Ephesus (in theEphesian Tale). Even the description of the central motivating event of the narrative, theBlack Plague (which Boccaccio surely witnessed), is not original, but is based on a description in theHistoria gentis Langobardorum ofPaul the Deacon, who lived in the 8th century.[citation needed] Boccaccio also drew onOvid's works as inspiration.[11] He has been called "the Italian Ovid" because of his writing.[11]
The fact that Boccaccio borrowed the story lines that make up most of theDecameron does not mean he mechanically reproduced them. Most of the stories take place in the 14th century and have been sufficiently updated to the author's time that a reader may not know that they had been written centuries earlier or in a foreign culture. Also, Boccaccio often combined two or more unrelated tales into one (such as in II, 2 and VII, 7).
Moreover, many of the characters actually existed, such asGiotto di Bondone,Guido Cavalcanti,Saladin, and KingWilliam II of Sicily. Scholars have even been able to verify the existence of less famous characters, such as the tricksters Bruno andBuffalmacco and their victimCalandrino. Still other fictional characters are based on real people, such as the Madonna Fiordaliso from tale II, 5, who is derived from a Madonna Flora who lived in thered light district of Naples.[citation needed] Boccaccio often intentionally muddled historical (II, 3) and geographical (V, 2) facts for his narrative purposes. Within the tales of theDecameron, the principal characters are usually developed through their dialogue and actions, so that by the end of the story they seem real and their actions logical given their context.
Another of Boccaccio's frequent techniques was to make already existing tales more complex. A clear example of this is in tale IX, 6, which was also used by Chaucer in his "The Reeve's Tale", which more closely follows the original French source than does Boccaccio's version. In the Italian version, the host's wife and the two young male visitors occupy all three beds and she also creates an explanation of the happenings of the evening. Both elements are Boccaccio's invention and make for a more complex version than either Chaucer's version or the French source (afabliau by Jean de Boves).
Despite its enduring popularity, theDecameron's overtly anti-clerical stances frequently brought the work into conflict with the Catholic Church. The first instance occurred in 1497 when the Dominican FriarGirolamo Savonarola incited a bonfire of 'sinful' art and literature in the centre of Florence known later as the "Bonfire of the Vanities". TheDecameron was among the works known to have been burned that day.
More official clerical challenges would follow upon the creation of theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum. Instituted by Pope Paul IV in 1559, theIndex was a list of texts that were officially anathema to the Catholic Church; Boccaccio'sDecameron was among the original texts included. Despite this, the book continued to circulate and grow in popularity, promptingGregory XIII to commission a revised edition in 1573 in which the clergymen were replaced with secular people. Even this would prove to be too immoral forSixtus V who commissioned another revision during his time as cardinal resulting in the 1582 edition bySalviati.[12]
TheDecameron's individual tales were translated into English early on (such as poetWilliam Walter's 1525Here begynneth y[e] hystory of Tytus & Gesyppus translated out of Latyn into Englysshe by Wyllyam Walter, somtyme seruaunte to Syr Henry Marney, a translation of tale X.viii), or served as source material for English authors such asChaucer to rework. The table below lists all attempts at a complete English translation of the book. The information on pre-1971 translations is compiled from the G. H. McWilliam's introduction to his own 1971 translation.
Omits theProemio andConclusione dell’autore. Replaces tale III.x with an innocuous tale taken fromFrançois de Belleforest’s “Histoires tragiques”, concluding that it “was commended by all the company, ... because it was free from all folly and obscoeneness.” Tale IX.x is also modified, while tale V.x loses its homosexual innuendo.
“Magnificent specimen of Jacobean prose, [but] its high-handed treatment of the original text produces a number of shortcomings” says G. H. McWilliam, translator of the 1971 Penguin edition (see below). Based not on Boccaccio's Italian original, but onAntoine Le Maçon’s 1545 French translation andLionardo Salviati's 1582 Italian edition which replaced ‘offensive’ words, sentences or sections with asterisks or altered text (in a different font). The 1940 Heritage Press edition of this 1620 translation restores the two omitted tales by inserting anonymously translated modern English versions.
OmitsProemio andConclusione dell’autore. Replaces tale III.x with the tale contained within the Introduction to the Fourth Day. Tale IX.x is bowdlerised, but possibly because the translator was working from faulty sources, rather than deliberately.
OmitsProemio andConclusione dell’autore. Explicitly omits tales III.x and IX.x, and removed the homosexual innuendo in tale V.x: “Boccace is so licentious in many places, that it requires some management to preserve his wit and humour, and render him tolerably decent. This I have attempted with the loss of two novels, which I judged incapable of such treatment; and am apprehensive, it may still be thought by some people, that I have rather omitted too little, than too much.”
Reissued several times with small or large modifications, sometimes without acknowledgement of the original translator. The 1804 reissue makes further expurgations. The 1822 reissue adds half-hearted renditions of III.x and IX.x, retaining the more objectionable passages in the original Italian, with a footnote to III.x that it is “impossible to render ... into tolerable English”, and givingMirabeau’s French translation instead. The 1872 reissue is similar, but makes translation errors in parts of IX.x. The 1895 reissue (introduced byAlfred Wallis), in four volumes, cites Mr.S. W. Orson as making up for the omissions of the 1741 original, although part of III.x is given inAntoine Le Maçon’s French translation, belying the claim that it is a complete English translation, and IX.x is modified, replacing Boccaccio’s direct statements with innuendo.
1855
W. K. Kelly
OmitsProemio andConclusione dell’autore. Includes tales III.x and IX.x, claiming to be "COMPLETE, although a few passages are in French or Italian", but as in 1822, leaves parts of III.x in the original Italian with a French translation in a footnote, and omits several key sentences entirely from IX.x.
---
1896
Anonymous
Part of tale III.x again given in French, without footnote or explanation. Tale IX.x translated anew, but Boccaccio's phrase "l’umido radicale" is rendered "the humid radical" rather than "the moist root".
Falsely claims to be a "New Translation from the Italian" and the "First complete English Edition", when it is only a reworking of earlier versions with the addition of what McWilliam calls "vulgarly erotic overtones" in some stories.
1903
James Macmullen Rigg
Once more, part of tale III.x is left in the original Italian with a footnote “No apology is needed for leaving, in accordance with precedent, the subsequent detail untranslated”.
McWiliam praises its elegant style in sections of formal language, but complains it is spoiled by an obsolete vocabulary in more vernacular sections. Reissued frequently, including inEveryman's Library (1930) with introduction byEdward Hutton.
Introduction byBurton Rascoe. First American translation, and first English-language translation by a woman. "Fairly accurate and eminently readable, [but] fails to do justice to those more ornate and rhetorical passages" says McWilliam. Originally issued in expensive 2-volume set by theLimited Editions Club ofNew York City, and in cheaper general circulation edition only in 1938.
The first truly complete translation in English, with copious footnotes to explain Boccaccio's double-entendres and other references. Introduction by Sir Walter Raleigh. Published by theVillon Society by private subscription for private circulation. Stands and falls on its "splendidly scrupulous but curiously archaic ... sonorous and self-consciousPre-Raphaelite vocabulary" according to McWilliam, who gives as an example from tale III.x: "Certes, father mine, this same devil must be an ill thing and an enemy in very deed of God, for that it irketh hell itself, let be otherwhat, when he is put back therein." 1925 Edition by Horace Liveright Inc. US, then reprinted in Oct 1928, Dec 1928, April 1929, Sept 1929, Feb 1930. 1930. Reissued in theModern Library, 1931. Updated editions have been published in 1982, edited byCharles S. Singleton, and in 2004, edited byCormac Ó Cuilleanáin.
Like Winwar, first issued in expensive and lavishly illustrated edition. "Littered with schoolboy errors ... plain and threadbare, so that anyone reading it might be forgiven for thinking that Boccaccio was a kind of sub-standard fourteenth-centurySomerset Maugham" says McWilliam.
1972, 1995
George Henry McWilliam
The first translation into contemporary English, intended for general circulation.Penguin Classics edition. The second edition (1995) includes a 150-page detailed explanation of the historical, linguistic, and nuanced reasoning behind the new translation. Its in-depth study exemplifies the care and consideration given to the original text and meaning. The volume includes a biography of the author and a detailed history of the book's composition and setting.
W. W. Norton & Company.Publishers Weekly called Rebhorn's translation "strikingly modern" and praised its "accessibility".[13] In an interview withThe Wall Street Journal Rebhorn stated that he started translating the work in 2006 after deciding that the translations he was using in his classroom needed improvement. Rebhorn cited errors in the 1977 translation as one of the reasons for the new translation. Peter Bondanella, one of the translators of the 1977 edition, stated that new translations build on previous ones and that the error cited would be corrected in future editions of his translation.[14]
It can be generally said that Petrarch's version inRerum senilium libri XVII, 3, included in a letter he wrote to his friend Boccaccio, was to serve as a source for all the many versions that circulated around Europe, including the translations of the veryDecameron intoCatalan (first recorded translation into a foreign language, anonymously hand-written inSant Cugat in 1429; later retranslated byBernat Metge),French andSpanish.
The famous first tale (I, 1) of the notorious Ser Ciappelletto was later translated into Latin byOlimpia Fulvia Morata and translated again byVoltaire.
Posthumus's wager on Imogen's chastity inCymbeline was taken by Shakespeare from an English translation of a 15th-century German tale, "Frederyke of Jennen", whose basic plot came from tale II, 9.
Lope de Vega adapted at least twelve stories from theDecameron for the theatre, including:
El ejemplo de casadas y prueba de la paciencia, based on tale X, 10, which was by far the most popular story of theDecameron during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
Discreta enamorada, based on tale III, 3
El ruiseñor de Sevilla (They're Not All Nightingales), based on parts of V, 4
Molière's 1661 playL'école des maris is based on tale III, 3.
Molière borrowed from tale VII, 4 in his playGeorge Dandin ou le Mari confondu (The Confounded Husband). In both stories the husband is convinced that he has accidentally caused his wife's suicide.
Thomas Middleton's playThe Widow is based on tales II, 2 and III, 3.
Martin Luther retells tale I, 2, in which aJew converts to Catholicism after visitingRome and seeing the corruption of the Catholic hierarchy. However, in Luther's version (found in his "Table-talk #1899"), Luther andPhilipp Melanchthon try to dissuade the Jew from visiting Rome.
The tale of patientGriselda (X, 10) was the source of Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale". However, there are some scholars who believe that Chaucer may not have been directly familiar with theDecameron, and instead derived it from a Latin translation/retelling of that tale byPetrarch.[citation needed]
At his deathPercy Bysshe Shelley had left a fragment of a poem entitled "Ginevra", which he took from the first volume of an Italian book calledL'Osservatore Fiorentino. The plot of that book was in turn taken from tale X, 4.
Chaucer's "The Franklin's Tale" shares its plot with tale X, 5, although this is not due to a direct borrowing from Boccaccio. Rather, both authors used a common French source.[citation needed]
In 2020State Theatre Company of South Australia andActNow Theatre created a project calledDecameron 2.0 in response to the COVID-19 crisis, which involved 10 writers creating 10 stories each over 10 weeks, loosely connected to themes in theDecameron.[18]
Also in response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the July 12, 2020, issue ofThe New York Times Magazine featured a short story collection entitledThe Decameron Project,[19] with new writings from contemporary authors includingMargaret Atwood, and illustrations by Sophy Hollington and other artists.
Published in 2021,The San Diego Decameron Project Anthology features 100 stories from 100 San Diegan authors based loosely around the theme of the COVID-19 pandemic, in tribute to theDecameron. The collection is presented by Write Out Loud,San Diego Public Library,La Jolla Historical Society, and San Diego Writers Ink.
Since theDecameron was very popular among contemporaries, especially merchants, many manuscripts of it survive. The Italian philologistVittore Branca did a comprehensive survey of them and identified a few copied under Boccaccio's supervision; some have notes written in Boccaccio's hand. Two in particular have elaborate drawings, probably done by Boccaccio himself. Since these manuscripts were widely circulated, Branca thought that they influenced all subsequent illustrations. In 1962 Branca identified Codex Hamilton 90, in Berlin's Staatsbibliothek, as anautograph belonging to Boccaccio's latter years.[20]
^Boccaccio, Giovanni (1349). "Translator's Introduction".The Decameron. Translated by McWilliam, G.H. (2nd ed.). London, England: Penguin Books (published 2003). pp. lxxxiii–lxxxiv.ISBN978-0-140-44930-3.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^"The Plague as Key to Meaning in Boccaccio's Decameron," in: The Black Death. Daniel Williman, ed. Binghamton, New York: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1982. pp 39-64.Ferrante, Joan M. "The Frame Characters of the Decameron: A Progression of Virtues." Romance Philology 19.2 (1965).
^Armando Petrucci,Il ms. Berlinese Hamilton 90. Note codicologiche e paleografiche, in G. Boccaccio,Decameron, Edizione diplomatico-interpretativa dell'autografo Hamilton 90 a cura diCharles S. Singleton,Baltimora, 1974.
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