THE DECAMERON.

The Decameron is a collection of one hundred short stories written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the 14th century, probably between 1349 and 1353.

The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales Written in the vernacular Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose  told by a group of seven young women and three young men who stay in a village just outside Florence for ten days to escape the black pandemic in the city at that time, and who in turn tell each other stories of an often humorous and with frequent references to the bucolic eroticism of the time. For this last aspect, the book was accused of immorality or scandal, and in many epochs it was censored. Today  it is considered one of the most important works of European literature of the fourteenth century, during which it exerted a vast influence on the works of other authors , as well as the progenitor of prose literature in the Italian vernacular . The tales range from the erotic to the tragic: tales of wit, jokes, life lessons contribute to the mosaic. Moreover, its literary value and widespread influence provide a portrait  of aristocratic life of the time, based on courteous love, liberality, magnanimity. The Decameron was also filmed in a film version by several film directors, including Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Taviani brothers.