Giovanni Boccaccio's 'The Decameron' is a masterful collection of one hundred tales, framed within the context of the Black Death that ravaged 14th-century Europe. Presented as a narrative of ten young nobility who flee plague-stricken Florence to the safety of a secluded villa, Boccaccio employs a vivid, colloquial style that combines humor, tragedy, and humanism. The tales-ranging from the sublime to the ribald-are steeped in the socio-political fabric of the time, reflecting contemporary val ...