The Decameron itself is comprised of 100 "novels" (or "novellas" -- short stories) told over a ten-day period by ten young people: seven ladies, and three young men who flee the plague to a countryside villa, and who vow to tell each other tales each day to pass the time. In the Proem of the Decameron, Boccaccio's description of the bubonic plague that fell upon Florence in 1348 is one of the most accurate, reliable, and detailed to have survived. The "Brigata," or ten young people, tell the tales of the Decameron, which range from tragic romances to erotic visions, to mysterious and ghostly tales of apparitions and magic.

Author Biography

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio wrote a number of notable works, including The Decameron and On Famous Women. He wrote his imaginative literature mostly in the Italian vernacular, as well as other works in Latin and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot.