Previous
Prologue
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Decameron, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sex
Men and Women
Moderation and Excess
Intelligence
Class and Character
Faith vs. Religion
Summary
Analysis
Because women are naturally compassionate, Boccaccio worries that the opening of his book will bother the sensitive ladies for whom he wrote it, since it describes the recent outbreak of Bubonic Plague. But this shouldn’t dissuade his audience; rather, the painful beginning will make the ensuing stories much sweeter, just like a steep preceding hike enhances a beautiful view. He can’t avoid it, anyway, since it’s the context that brought the company together.
Boccaccio’s warning to his female readers not only plays on gendered assumptions about females as weak and emotional, but it also capitalizes on the strong medieval association of compassion with women and with noblepersons that will reappear throughout the book. Although Boccaccio claims that he must describe the plague, since it was the circumstance that brought the brigata together, the literary rationale for including it is to increase the contrast between the chaos and disorder of Florence and the idyllic, moderate, and pleasant life the brigata lives in the countryside.
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The plague comes to Florence in 1348. Some think it’s divine punishment, and others think it’s caused by astrological events. Regardless, it can’t be prevented or prepared for. It is characterized by swollen lymph nodes and bruises. Physicians can’t treat it, either because they don’t understand it well enough or because it is incurable. It passes like wildfire between the sick and the well, even affecting animals.
The Bubonic Plague did indeed hit Florence in 1348, and if Giovanni Boccaccio didn’t witness it himself from inside the city, he knew people who did. However, his description in the book is drawn from earlier plague narratives. The variety of responses to the plague illustrate how surprising and destabilizing it was for Florentine society.
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Of course, everyone is terrified and tries to avoid catching it. Widespread responses include carrying on normally but using medicinal herbs for protection; forming groups and living quietly and moderately in isolation; living it up, drinking, and partying (which is only possible because so many civil authorities have died that it’s impossible for them to enforce societal rules); and abandoning the city, as if God’s punishment is confined by its walls.
When people inevitably fall ill, they are abandoned by everyone: neighbors, relatives, close family members, and servants. Parents even refuse to take care of their sick children. This leads to some morally questionable practices, like male servants taking care of sick noblewomen, who willingly expose their naked bodies to these servants, which probably explains why plague survivors show less chastity than normal.
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Before the plague, female relations and neighbors would gather to mourn a person’s death, while male relations and neighbors would carry the body to the priest for burial. But during the plague, people die alone and un-mourned. Their bodies are carried to the church by the cartload, a new service invented by enterprising members of the lower classes who charge a large fee to haul away corpses. Funeral services are abbreviated, and people are buried in mass graves.
Many regular people die in their homes, discovered only when their corpses begin to stink. Neighbors leave victims in the streets to be picked up, carried to the church, and buried in mass funerals. In fact, plague victims are treated with less respect than dead goats. The dead must be buried in mass graves because churches are running out of consecrated ground. People in the countryside aren’t safe either; their suffering is in fact magnified by a lack of doctors and servants. They also neglect their responsibilities, feasting on their livestock instead of tending to their fields.
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Between March and July, 100,000 people died. Boccaccio mourns palaces emptied of lords, ladies, and servants; prestigious family lines abruptly ended; riches lost; and the handsome men and charming ladies who died. The more he thinks about what was lost, the sadder he becomes.
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During this chaos, seven ladies bound by kinship and friendship descend on the Church of Maria Novella on a Tuesday morning to pray. They are between the ages of 18 and 27, intelligent, well bred, beautiful, and charming. Boccaccio will give them pseudonyms (based on their character or temperament) to prevent any embarrassment that might arise from naughtiness in their stories. They are Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emelia, Lauretta, Neifile, and Elissa.
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Having met by good fortune, when they’re done praying, Pampinea reminds the other ladies it’s natural to try to preserve their lives. In the city, they can only pray, count corpses, and hope to escape the thugs partying in the streets. Anyone who can has already left Florence, and since total anarchy has engulfed society, she’s afraid. She wonders why they’re still in Florence: do they think they’re somehow immune to harm?
Instead, Pampinea proposes that they leave the city together and in comfort but “without overstepping the bounds of what is reasonable” at a country estate, surrounded by pleasant scenery, fresh air, and fewer corpses. Since their families are all dead or escaped, they have no one to hold them in the city. They can take maidservants to handle their daily needs while they pursue the pleasures and entertainments left in these dark times until the plague ends. It’s better to go away and preserve their honor than to stay and forfeit it.
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Most of the other ladies are eager to go, but Filomena urges caution: she’s worried that without male guidance they might quarrel and split up. Elissa agrees, wondering where they can find the right men. Meanwhile, Panfilo, Filostrato, and Dioneo enter the church looking for their lady-loves (who are among the company) because even the terrible plague hasn’t cooled their passion. Pampinea immediately declares fortune has sent just the right men to join the group.
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Neifile flushes with embarrassment and begs Pampinea to be careful; traveling together might lead to gossip. Filomena retorts that gossip can’t harm a person who lives honestly and has a clear conscience before God. She agrees with Pampinea that fortune seems to be smiling on them. Pampinea invites the trio, and they leave at dawn the next day.
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Their first stop lies two miles outside of Florence. It’s a palace on a hill surrounded by shrubs, trees, courtyards, gardens, meadows, and wells of cool water. It’s well-stocked, clean, and decked with flowers. Dioneo declares that he’s left his troubles behind in Florence, and Pampinea suggests a system to preserve their happiness: each day they will select a sovereign to decide how they will live. She is unanimously elected first and crowned with laurels.
Pampinea assigns jobs to the servants, commanding them to keep bad news away from the company. They eat a lavish breakfast, play music and dance, then retire for a siesta. Afterwards, Pampinea leads them to a shaded meadow where they find chess and other games. But she decrees that the best way to pass the afternoon is by telling stories—on any topic—because it amuses both the teller and the audience. Turning to Panfilo, she asks him to go first.
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