The Decameron
by Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was probably born in 1313 in Florence. The illegitimate son of a partner in one of the citys most important banking companies, the Bar...
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VOLUME II
Pietro and Agnolella (fifth day, third story)
Gianni and Restituta (fifth day, sixth story)
Calandrino singing (ninth day, fifth story)
Titus, Gisippus, and Sophronia (tenth day, eighth
stor...
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The Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) is best known for the Decameron. For his Latin works and his role in reviving Hellenistic learning in Florence, he may be considered one of the early ...
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In the following excerpt from an essay written in 1871, De Sanctis celebrates Boccaccio's earthy comedy, contrasting it with the high seriousness of the works of Dante and Petrarch.
Boccacci...
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In the following excerpt, Nissen argues that the Decameron reflects a time of shifting values in a society in flux, with Boccaccio exploring some ethical possibilities offered by that society.
The ...
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In the following excerpt, Forni examines Boccaccio's opening strategies for the stories in the Decameron, focusing on his ability to move from the familiar to the unusual.
The sixteenth-cent...
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In the following excerpt from an essay originally published in 1955, Moravia argues that the defining quality of Boccaccio's literary sensibility is a love of adventure rather a than concern fo...
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In the following essay, originally published in 1959, Shklovskij argues that, with the opening tales of the Decameron, Boccaccio subverts traditional Christian piety and its accompanying sexual morali...
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In the following excerpt, Scaglione explores Boccaccio's attitude towards spiritual and sexual love as they are expressed in the Decameron.
The first question about a book concerns its form,...
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In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1975, Bergin reviews Boccaccio's career and reflects on the historical and environmental foundations of the Decameron, characterizin...
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In the following excerpt, Almansi presents a psychological interpretation of Boccacio's first novella of the fourth day in the Decameron, theorizing that Tancredi's murder of his daughte...
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In the following essay, Auerbach offers a close textual analysis of how Boccaccio's style and syntax influence the tone and momentum of his narrative.
In a famous novella of the Decameron (I...
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In the following excerpt, Marino examines how Boccaccio's depiction of the various narrators in his cornice or frame-text, amplifies and enriches the Decameron.
The options not chosen by a w...
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In the following excerpt, Smarr argues that in the Decameron Boccaccio further explores his distrust of the power of reason, a theme previously expressed in many of his minor works.
I. Reason
Reaso...
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Teaching The Decameron
All teaching products sold separately.
The Decameron Lesson Plans contain 123 pages of teaching material, including:
Question 1 of 10:
England
was struck by famine in 1316 after farms were devastated by...?Crop diseaseA drought
Torrential rain
Civil warQuestion 2 of 10:The infamously incompetent King Edward II ...
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Elena, a writer of self-help books at work on Here’s How: To Do EVERYTHING Correctly!, and Max, a Hollywood filmmaker whose single Oscar is decades behind him, are together in bed. They shoul...
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