meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The History of Literature

Giovanni Boccaccio | The Decameron

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the Black Death swept through the city of Florence, Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) began writing his classic tale of survival and revelry. The Decameron (1349-1353) tells the story of ten individuals who have retreated to a country villa to avoid the disease. While in this state of self-quarantine, they embark upon a fortnight of storytelling: ten stories each for ten days. The resulting work was a landmark in the literature of the Italian Renaissance--and thanks to Boccaccio's energy, inventiveness, and insight into the human condition, the work still exerts a fascinating power nearly seven hundred years later. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.

0:07.0

Hello. The requests for today's episode started coming in even before we were officially in a quarantine.

0:16.0

Bocco. Are you going to read Bocco? Are you going to talk about the de-Camron?

0:22.0

Part of me resisted this. We're in a pandemic. Do we really want to read

0:26.6

about one? But of course there's more to the decamaran than just the plague. It's a harrowing description of death, in particular the black death,

0:36.2

the 14th century plague that killed half of Europe, by most estimates. It took Europe 200 years to return to its pre-plague population.

0:45.0

The decamaran, which was written during the plague, doesn't shy away from the disease or its effects on the minds of the people.

0:52.0

But it's also about life. or its effects on the minds of the people.

0:52.8

But it's also about life.

0:54.7

It's a celebration of life.

0:56.3

It's funny and salacious.

0:58.8

It's one of the words most often used to describe it.

1:01.5

Earthy, body, sexy. It's broad and schematic, but also unpredictable.

1:08.4

It's one of the great works of the Italian Renaissance and Boccaccio is an essential figure in Renaissance literature and humanist literature.

1:17.6

Dante's work La Divina Comedia, The Divine Comedy, and of course you probably already know that comedy here does not mean

1:24.7

humorous work but one that stood opposed to tragedy. Those were the two main forms

1:30.6

dating back to the days of the Greeks, tragedy ended with the

1:33.7

character's downfall or fall from grace we might say. The divine comedy, Dante's

1:39.3

divine comedy, ended with Dante's ascension into heaven. Not a tragedy at all, therefore.

1:46.0

Bocaccio's work, the Decamarin has a lot of parallels to Dante's.

1:50.0

Bocaccio was born about 50 years after Dante. His tutor was a fan of Dante's and introduced

1:56.3

Boccaccio to his works. Boccaccio was himself living in Florence, the city of Dante,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jacke Wilson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jacke Wilson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.