The Decameron: The Modell of Wit, Mirth, Eloquence, and Conversation

The Decameron: The Modell of Wit, Mirth, Eloquence, and Conversation. Boccaccio, John; Hutton, Edward (translator and introduction). Published by Easton Press, Norwalk, 1980. Illustrated by Fritz Kredel. Red leather boards, banded spine with gilt spine titles, gilt designs to front and back, all edges gilt, bronze silk endpapers with matching reading ribbon. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall; 536pp., illustrated with woodcuts; color portrait frontispiece of author. Very light ghost mark to pastedown from removed sticker and otherwise volume is in fine, unread condition. The Decameron was written after the Black Plague spread through Italy in 1348. The stories are told in a country villa outside the city of Florence by ten young noble men and women who are seeking to escape the ravages of the plague. Each of the ten tell one story each day for ten days resulting in the 100 stories of the Decameron. Most of the tales did not originate with Boccaccio; some of them were centuries old already in his time, but Boccaccio imbued them all with his distinctive style. The stories run the gamut from tragedy to comedy, from lewd to inspiring, and sometimes all of those at once. They also provide a detailed picture of daily life in fourteenth-century Italy. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian writer and humanist, one of the founders of the Renaissance.…