"The Decameron"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the Black Death of 1348 forms the background to Boccaccio's "Decameron"; a group of ten young high-born citizens of Florence - seven women and three men - flee the city to escape the disease and take refuge in the villas outside the city walls. It looks at how "The Decameron" arises from and reflects a society afflicted by the overwhelming catastrophe of the Black Death, a catastrophe which, in the 1340s, reduced the population of the city by up to one-half and severely affected every aspect of Florentine life.

From the Paper:

"That satirical criticism is clear in the second novel of the first day, in which Neifile tells the story of Abraham, a Jew who, at the instance of a friend, Jehannot, who is trying to convert him to Christianity, decides to 'go to Rome, and there observe the man whom you call the vicar of God on earth, and examine his life and habits together with those of his fellow cardinals' (Boccaccio, 38). This prospect alarms Jehannot: 'if he goes to the court of Rome and sees what foul and wicked lives the clergy lead, not only will he not become a Christian, but, if he had already turned Christian, he would become a Jew again without fail' (Boccaccio, 39). This passage is interesting in taking for granted that the listeners to the story, and of course the readers, share the opinion of Jehannot and the narrator that Rome is a place of iniquity and that the clergy there live foul lives inconsistent with the supposed teachings and values of Christianity."

More papers on "The Decameron":

• Essay # 73878 : "The Decameron" and The "Inferno"
• Book Review # 97371 : "The Decameron"
• Book Review # 49914 : "Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron"

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