The Decameron

Social Context

The Decameron was composed sometime between 1353 and 1361 in Italy¹. During this period, books were traditionally produced in the scriptoria of monasteries, meeting the everlasting demand of Bibles, patristic works and liturgies. However, the demand for other types of books grew and consequently a new market to satisfy these needs emerged. For example, in universities, books on Law and Medicine were highly desired.

There were various types of scribes fulfilling this need. The change in technique which employed differently cut pens facilitated the process of writing by allowing fractured gothic letter types of appear². However, most scribes were students that needed money or priests seeking to supplement their incomes, but women and young boys also copied books, sometimes from the comfort of their own homes. According to Our World in Data “Books”, approximately 879,364,000 books were produced in 14th century Italy³. Professional workshops produced only a small numbers of copies of books in the vernacular which made these books quite expensive⁴.

Copying for leisure reading happened on a large scale in Northern Italy. Since the merchant class was most responsible for copying books, the quality of the works suffered, and the copyists frequently lamented the poor quality of their work at the end of a book⁵.

Although books of a devotional nature such as Gospels and Vitae were common in the houses of merchants of the 13th and 14th centuries, others types of works like romantic tales, rhetorical texts, and those on law and medicine were common as well. Interestingly, a copy of Dante’s Commedia could be found in nearly every house, and Boccaccio was also popular, as well as various other works in French. Historians surmise that books were often circulated by individual lending. Additionally, notes and commentaries were rare in books because in-depth comprehension of texts done for leisure was not emphasized as a means of engaging with texts. A common form of books among the merchant class was called the zibaldone, or hodgepodge book, which were notebooks comprised of the owner’s favourite stories, medical recipes, devotional tracts, lauds and love poetry, but could also contain practical information such as currency exchange rates and gate tolls⁶.

There was very little class difference between rich merchants and the nobility and the nobility possessed books from much of the same genres as the merchants. For the rich, however, books were not merely for reading or entertainment, but they were seen as a form of capital. Therefore, the books in the possession of the nobility were often far richer in material, written on parchment, well-decorated and sturdily bound. The books also employed richer handwriting and gothic textura created by professionals⁷.

Without a doubt, there existed numerous classes of educated professionals with a good knowledge of Latin in the late Middle Ages in Italy. However, there is much debate on the exact level of education and literacy among the laity in this period. There is not enough evidence to prove most of the lay nobility received some sort of education nor can it be proven that it was unusual for them to get an education. However, the large number of professional laity is an indication that education was available. It seems plausible to assume that it was not uncommon for the lay nobility of the 11th century to be educated. From the 12th century onwards, there is much more evidence about the literacy of the lay people⁸.

Although literacy rates in the 14th century were extremely low and the ability to read and write was seen as a privilege to most of the population in Europe⁹, lay education in Italy is seen to have never completely disappeared after the decline of the Roman Empire. In fact, throughout all of Italian history, there is evidence of laymen who are able to read and write. Since the earliest appearance of a teacher in the late mid-900s, the number of teachers increases steadily. It is stated that in 1339 in Florence, roughly eight to ten thousand boys received elementary education. This suggests that roughly 10% of the population (90,000) received education at some point in their lives¹⁰. This concurs with the fact that in the 1400s, Italy had a literacy rate of 10% compared to 5% for the rest of Europe, with a large percentage of the literate being male¹¹. An important part of the culture surrounding medieval Europe was the church as it often incorporated schooling and taught male students Latin grammar. Some of these students went on to become a part of the church permanently as Friars or other church-affiliated officials, and these positions required people to know how to read religious texts¹².

There were many lay people who were literate in 14th century Italy, but most of this privilege was held by those who could afford education. Also, literacy was not simply the main concern of the poorer population as evidenced by the rise of The Black Plague, by which The Decameron was inspired¹³. It is noted that “The disease was transmitted primarily by fleas and rats,”¹⁴ which suggests that the poorer population was more likely to be affected. The plague was also known as “The Children’s Plague”¹⁵ because of the large mortality rate in the young.

The values of the Middle Ages such as valour, faith and transcendence yielded to those of the Renaissance including enjoyment, business and the actual when Boccaccio wrote The Decameron¹⁶. “[T]here are some very interesting statements tucked into his work, from his earliest days as a writer up to his final output, which was about how to read, how not to read, and what can be done to help readers”¹⁷. Boccaccio placed high emphasis on balancing reading for pleasure and reading for work¹⁸.

Around the time of Boccaccio, a movement known as humanism grew increasingly important. With Florence at its epicenter, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Salutati moved the ideas of humanists, to collect, save, and spread as many texts as possible, forward. These ideas of humanists were influential in affecting the libraries of the time. In monasteries and cathedral schools, the libraries became more and more open to the public for consultation and research, and a larger portion of the population had greater access to literature for the sake of leisure and education at a time when literacy was low and storytelling was a popular means of communication¹⁹.

Images of Reading

Boccaccio’s The Decameron is a book composed of “a hundred stories or fables or parables or histories or whatever you choose to call them” (3). The sheer number of stories and the fact that these short stories are stories within a story is evidence that Boccaccio valued communication and storytelling as a means of attaining something more profound.

Boccaccio lived during the time of the Black Death and consequently adapts a similar setting for The Decameron. It is 1348 and Florence is in a state of chaos because of the Black Death in the book. A group of seven women “assembled together during the plague which recently took such heavy toll of wife” (3). They meet three men and the ten of them set out for a two-mile road trip outside of the city walls. They find a palace which happens to have ample living space, luscious gardens, clean water, singing birds and much more. Although only two miles away from the chaos, Boccaccio presents a sort of Garden of Eden, a paradise, for the party to partake in storytelling and emotionally, as well as physically, remove themselves from their troubles.

Storytelling and “some songs” (3) serve as means of escape, “the means whereby [they] may pass [their] time agreeably” (20). However, storytelling had practical implications as well “[f]or they will learn to recognize what should be avoided and likewise what should be pursued” (3). Storytelling had two purposes: to teach and to entertain. In fact, Boccaccio had a strong opinion on the subject when he inverts the values of Horace, the Roman theorist. Horace warns that verbal excess would cause readers to find it difficult to remember and that forms of communication should be kept concise. However, Boccaccio went on to state that texts needed for work ought to be ideally short, but that the texts read for pleasure, by contrast should be as long as possible²⁰. Then, interestingly, The Decameron is an amalgamation of texts read for pleasure and for work as it is rather extraordinarily long as a whole but encompasses numerous short stories. Perhaps Boccaccio is making the statement that The Decameron is the best of both worlds in that it is educational as well as entertaining.

Storytelling is depicted as a form of freedom as “each . . . should be free to speak upon whatever topic he prefers” (23). This quotation also introduces the importance of genre. Boccaccio was aware of the way genre affected the way people read texts. For example, after declaring that his audience is to be women “in love” (3), he announces the hundred short stories.

Storytelling has other useful purposes. In the fifth story of the fifth day, Neifile tells the story of Giacomino, who recounts the story of how Guidotto found Agnesa. Apparently, Guidotto “and his companions entered a house and found it full of booty . . . he took her with him to Fano . . . during those upheavals [Giannole] lost a little girl of the age that Giacomino mentioned . . . [so] [t]hen it must be the same girl” (403-404). Through storytelling, the truth is revealed and conflict is resolved as Giannole no longer has the reason to fight Minghino to marry the woman who is now revealed to be his sister. A similar theme of family reunion is seen in the seventh story of the fifth day when on hearing the story of Pietro, “Phineas knew for certain that this was the son he had lost” (417). The scene of storytelling is never long. However, it is given heavy substance as the direst conflicts and the most important revelations are made through these brief scenes of enlightenment.

Perhaps the most powerful instance of storytelling occurs in the eighth story of the fifth day when Nastagio takes advantage of the ghost of a knight cruelly murdering the ghost of a woman in a forest every Friday. Nastagio “arranged matters that the girl he loved sat directly facing the spot where the scene would be enacted . . . [and] [e]veryone began shouting and bawling at the dogs and the knight, and several people rushed forward to the girl’s assistance; but the knight, by repeating to them the story he had related to Nastagio, not only caused them to retreat but filled them all with terror and amazement” (423-424). Nastagio uses theatrics to provide a very real and vivid depiction of a very violent scenario which leaves a strong emotional mark. In fact, the storytelling is so powerful and effective that “all the ladies present . . . wept as plaintively as though what they had witnessed had been done to themselves” (424). The experience is so vicarious that it leaves real, tangible and long-term effects on society. In order to avoid a similar fate as the female ghost, not only did the daughter of Paolo Traversari “seiz[e] the earliest opportunity . . . [to become Nastagio’s] lawful wedded wife,” (424) but also “the ladies of Ravenna in general [became] so frightened by [the theatrics] that they became much more tractable to men’s pleasures than they had ever been in the past” (425).

The Decameron shows that reading/storytelling and its interpretation are much more than empty words. These words bring with them a spirit or intent, and these intentions have very powerful societal consequences. Whether the nature of stories is for education, escapism, or both, what readers take away from the content is in the end up to various forms of interpretation.

Footnotes

1. William Robins, “The Case of the Court Entertainer: Popular Culture, Intertextual Dialogue, and the Early Circulation of Boccaccio’s Decameron,” Speculum 92, no. 1 (2017): 1-35.
2. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
3. Max Roser, “Books,” Our World in Data. http://www.ourworldindata.org/books#production-of-manuscripts-and-books-from-500-to-1800.
4. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
5. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
6. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
7. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
8. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
9. John Simkin, “Education in the Middle Ages,” Spartacus Educational, http://www.spartacus-educational.com/YALDeducation.htm.
10. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
11. Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser, “Literacy,” Our World in Data, http://www.ourworldindata.org/literacy#measurement-and-estimation-of-historical-literacy-rates.
12. Dianne Tillotson, “Modes of Reading in the Middle Ages,” Medieval Writing, http://www.medievalwriting.50megs.com/literacy/reading.htm.
13. Rachel D. Rickel, “The Black Death and Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron’s Portrayal of Merchant Mentality,” (2013): 8.
14. “The Black Plague,” All Empires, Accessed May 13, 2018, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=the_black_plague.
15. “The Black Plague,” All Empires, Accessed May 13, 2018, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=the_black_plague.
16. Joan Acocella, “Renaissance Man,” The New Yorker, Nov. 11, 2013.
17. Jonathan Usher, “Boccaccio on Readers and Reading,” Heliotropia, Accessed May 13, 2018, http://www.heliotropia.org/01-01/usher.pdf.
18. Jonathan Usher, “Boccaccio on Readers and Reading,” Heliotropia, Accessed May 13, 2018, http://www.heliotropia.org/01-01/usher.pdf.
19. “Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity,” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007, http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.
20. Jonathan Usher, “Boccaccio on Readers and Reading,” Heliotropia, Accessed May 13, 2018, http://www.heliotropia.org/01-01/usher.pdf.

Bibliography

Acocella, Joan. “Renaissance Man.” The New Yorker. Nov. 11, 2013. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/11/renaissance-man-4.

“Literacy and Education of the Later Medieval Italian Laity.” All Empires, last modified Sep. 26, 2007. http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=literacy_education_later_medieval_italian_laity#reference_list_56.

Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban and Max Roser. “Literacy.” Our World in Data. Accessed May 13, 2018. http://www.ourworldindata.org/literacy#measurement-and-estimation-of-historical-literacy-rates.

Rickel, Rachel D. “The Black Death and Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron’s Portrayal of Merchant Mentality,” (2013): 8.

Robins, William. “The Case of the Court Entertainer: Popular Culture, Intertextual Dialogue, and the Early Circulation of Boccaccio’s Decameron.” Speculum 92, no. 1 (2017): 1-35.

Roser, Max. “Books.” Our World in Data. Accessed May 13, 2018. http://www.ourworldindata.org/books#production-of-manuscripts-and-books-from-500-to-1800.

Simkin, John. “Education in the Middle Ages.” Spartacus Educational. Accessed May 13, 2018. http://www.spartacus-educational.com/YALDeducation.htm.

“The Black Plague.” All Empires. Accessed May 13, 2018. http://www.allempires.com/article/ index.php?q=the_black_plague.

Tillotson, Dianne. “Modes of Reading in the Middle Ages.” Medieval Writing. Accessed May 13, 2018. http://www.medievalwriting.50megs.com/literacy/reading.htm.

Usher, Jonathan. “Boccaccio on Readers and Reading,” Heliotropia. Accessed May 13, 2018. http://www.heliotropia.org/01-01/usher.pdf.

Professor, I realize the bibliography should be indented after the first line for each entry but I am not able to do that here. When I save page, the spacing disappears. Please keep that in mind as you look at the formatting. Thank you!