Questions tagged [giovanni-boccaccio]
Questions about the literary works of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) or his life as a writer. Questions about his works should be tagged with [italian-language].
24 questions
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Trying to remember Chaucer-like story’s name
There were two main characters and they sought lodging. A farmer and his wife took them in, they had a baby and a daughter. The two men wanted to sleep with the daughter. So they devised a plan that ...
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What does this mean about the interpretation of Lauretta's song at the end of Day 3?
At the end of Day 3 of the Decameron, Lauretta sings the following song after dinner, at the request of the new "king" Filostrato:
What dame disconsolate
May so lament as I,
That vainly ...
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Why is this chunk of the Decameron Day 3 Story 10 left untranslated?
In the Decameron Web full text of the Decameron and English, which uses the Rigg (1903) translation and is hosted by Brown University, a significant chunk of Day 3 Story 10 is left untranslated:
***...
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Meaning and significance of "cacheremo" in the Decameron?
In Day 3 Story 8 of the Decameron (Italian original), a prisoner in an abbey, who believes himself to be in purgatory, asks how far he is from his own country, and received the following reply:
“And ...
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What is the meaning of "Zima" in the Decameron, Day 3 Story 5?
Day 3 Story 5 of the Decameron features a main character who is referred to by the name of Zima:
Now there was then in Pistoia a young man, Ricciardo by name, of low origin but great wealth, who went ...
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What does "the ass and the wall are quits" mean?
This phrase is used at least twice in the Decameron:
In Day 2 Story 9, when the merchants at the beginning of the story are boasting of their infidelity to their wives and justifying themselves by ...
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Who are these crescent saints?
In the Decameron Day 2 Story 7, the protagonist is a princess of "Babylon" who has numerous sexual misadventures after getting shipwrecked on the way to be married. She is, I believe, ...
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What is the provenance of Story 6 in Day 2 of the Decameron, set against a backdrop of 13th-century Sicily?
Day 2, Story 6 of the Decameron is set against a political backdrop of 13th-century Sicily: it begins with the defeat of King Manfred at Benevento by the new king Charles, and the main characters are ...
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Is Evil Hole / Malpertugio a realistic name for a district in Naples?
Day 2 Story 5 of the Decameron is set partly in a district of Naples with (at least in the English translation) a striking name that sounds comical and exaggerated. Here follows the translation I'm ...
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How much of the English history in this Decameron story has any basis in fact?
Day 2 Story 3 of the Decameron is a story which deeply involves the English royal family. I don't know how much contact there was between England and Italy in the 14th century, or how much care an ...
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What "always was and is the occupation of the Agolanti"?
In Day 2 Story 3 of the Decameron:
There was formerly in our city a knight, by name Messer Tedaldo, of the Lamberti, according to some, or, as others say, of the Agolanti family, perhaps for no ...
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Was the Canterbury Tales directly inspired by the Decameron?
Both Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are 14th-century collections of short tales set within a frame story involving a group of people taking turns to tell stories one at a time. ...
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How are the daily themes decided in the Decameron?
Wikipedia claims that the topic of Day 2's stories is decreed by that day's queen, Filomena:
Filomena reigns during the second day and she assigns a topic to each of the storytellers: Misadventures ...
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What's the significance of Emilia's song at the end of Day 1 of the Decameron?
At the end of Day 1 of the Decameron, after the "crown" has been transferred from Pampinea to Filomena, they all have dinner together and then play music and dance. Emilia sings the ...
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Does Lauretta's rant reflect a real change in the style of jesters in 14th-century Italy?
In Day 1 Story 8 of the Decameron, narrated by Lauretta, she digresses to engage in a long rant about how jesters nowadays aren't what they used to be:
[T]here came to Genoa a jester of good parts, a ...
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What is the connection between the chicken banquet and the king's intentions towards the marchioness?
Day 1 Story 5 of the Decameron is about a King who visits the estate of a Marquis and Marchioness during the former's absence with the intent of wooing the latter. She understands his intent and ...
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Boccaccio's portrayal of the Catholic Church
Day 1 Story 2 of the Decameron is essentially a searing satirical critique of the Catholic Church in Rome. A Christian man, Jehannot, is trying to convert his Jewish friend to Christianity; the Jew, ...
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Why are "Ser" and "San" left untranslated to "Sir" and "Saint"?
Day 1 Story 1 of the Decameron is about the knavish Ser Ciappelletto, who after his death becomes reputed as the holy San Ciappelletto. In the Rigg translation which I'm reading, these names are left ...
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Cappello, Cepparello, Ciapperello, Ciappelletto - what's it all about?
Day 1 Story 1 of the Decameron is about a very bad man who makes a false confession just before his death and ends up being lauded as a saint. This man goes by many closely related names, but I don't ...
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What was wrong with becchini?
From the introductory part of The Decameron, in Pampinea's speech that inspires the seven young women initially to decamp to the countryside, she speaks of the atmosphere in their city of Florence at ...
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What is meant by "traffic" in this list of men's activities?
In the introduction (proem) to the Decameron, the author spends some paragraphs writing about lovesick women and how he hopes his stories may give them some solace as their situation means they're ...
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What do the names of the Decameron characters signify?
The Wikipedia page for the Decameron claims (without citations) that:
Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to ...
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Do the young women and men of the Decameron represent the Virtues and sections of the soul?
The Wikipedia page on the Decameron claims that:
Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance.[9] For example, it is widely believed[by ...
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Where did Boccaccio refer to Dante's Comedia or Commedia as the Divine Comedy?
The English Wikipedia article about Dante's Divine Comedy contains the following paragraph, which contains a statement that has no source (emphasis mine):
The work was originally simply titled ...
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