The Decameron by Boccaccio (1620) Translation

The Irony was that I started reading this about a week before lock-down?

It's a tough read; the old language is very interesting though, the alternative spellings are awesome.

The Decameron is very little more or less than the Canterbury Tales.

The mere number of them (a decameron of them) is daunting, the slow nature of the reading makes it a little tedious.

They wanted for little in the middle of a pandemic. Basically the ten characters escape from Florence during the Plague and being obviously wealthy have a grand old time telling tales, dancing and singing.

Having been to Florence and the surrounding areas it is really nice to follow along, the stories reference many towns and villages in Italy.

I would say that maybe less than 10% of the translation is about the character and of course that would have been a better story.

One amazing thing is how many stories dealt with the improprieties of the Clergy; many of these guys and girls were held in very low regard some 700 years ago!

Nice little renderings scattered throughout.

No print date I suspect 60's or 70's