The Decameron
14th-century collection of stories by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Decameron ( dih-KAM-ər-ən; Italian: Decameron [deˈkaːmeron, dekameˈrɔn, -ˈron] or Decamerone [dekameˈroːne]), subtitled Prince Galehaut (Old Italian: Prencipe Galeotto [ˈprentʃipe ɡaleˈɔtto, ˈprɛn-]), is a collection of short stories by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). It is sometimes nicknamed l'Umana commedia ("The Human Comedy"), as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's Comedy "Divine". The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men; they shelter in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black 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 in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons also contribute to the mosaic. 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. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of early Italian prose.
Title
The book's primary title exemplifies Boccaccio's fondness for Greek philology: Decameron combines Greek δέκα, déka ("ten") and ἡμέρα, hēméra ("day") to mean "ten-day [event]", referring to the period in which the characters of the frame story tell their tales.
Hexaemeron (Six Days, literally The Six-Day [Work]) was a familiar title in Boccaccio's day.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16438. VIAF identifies the subject as 311114624. The Library of Congress control number is n83800493. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1313, 1375, 1348 and 1353.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Decameron” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.