Gardens symbolize the possibilities that exist outside of the traditional spaces of society or the constraints of “real life.” The book begins in plague-ravaged Florence, but when the ten members of the brigata (the ten young people who narrate the tales) agree to leave the town to get some relief from the danger, trauma, and social upheaval caused by the plague, they retreat to a series of country estates which have lush and beautiful gardens. Throughout The Decameron, gardens are distinguished from nature by the care and order with which they are planned and constructed; they contain decorative elements like paths, fountains, flowerbeds, walls, and semi-domesticated animals. They thus represent the order that human beings can impose on chaos and function as a middle space between the wholly constructed world of the city and the often-lawless realm of nature. And they belong to the literary tradition of the locus amoenus, or “pleasant place,” representing safety and harbor from the danger and the harshness of life—especially in the context of the Black Death as described on Day I. Pleasant gardens are also markers of class, belonging to princes like Tancredi and King Frederick or wealthy, often noble men like Neri degli Uberti, Bernardo Puccini, and Torello.
The Decameron’s gardens are also linked to the medieval idea of the hortus conclusus, or “enclosed garden,” which has its roots in the Song of Songs, a book in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In medieval Christian theology, the hortus conclusus is linked to the Garden of Eden and the inviolable purity of the Virgin Mary; in The Decameron, gardens represent an Edenic space apart from the messiness of life and the pain of death. In medieval literature, the hortus conclusus is further linked to fin’amors (refined love) stories. Accordingly, lovers like Andreuola and Gabriotto, Simona and Pasquino, Caterina and Ricciardo de’ Manardi, and Dianora and Ansaldo meet in gardens. In fabliaux-inspired tales (raunchy stories about illicit sex), the association of gardens with love can devolve into metaphors for female genitalia: Massetto wants to tend the nuns’ garden and their sexual needs; lovers access the bedrooms of the Florentine Noblewoman and Francesco’s Wife through their gardens; and Dioneo describes Tingoccio’s affair with Monna Mita as gardening in her rich soil.
Gardens Quotes in The Decameron
The sight of this garden, and the perfection of its arrangement, with its shrubs, its streamlets, and the fountain from which they originated, gave so much pleasure … that they all began to maintain that if Paradise were constructed on earth, it was inconceivable that it could take any other form, nor could they imagine any way in which the garden’s beauty could possibly be enhanced … [And] the garden was liberally stocked with as many as a hundred different varieties of perfectly charming animals […] Here were some rabbits emerging from a warren, over there hares were running, elsewhere they could observe some deer lying on the ground, whilst in yet another place young fawns were grazing. And apart from these, they saw numerous harmless creatures of many other kinds, roaming about at leisure as though they were quite tame, all of which greatly added to their already considerable delight.
And since, as on previous occasions, the task I am about to perform has no other object than to dispel your melancholy, enamoured ladies, and provide you with laughter and merriment, I shall tell you the ensuing tale, for it may well afford enjoyment although its subject matter is not entirely seemly. As you listen, do as you would when you enter a garden, and stretch forth your tender hands to pluck the roses, leaving the thorns where they are. This you will succeed in doing if you leave the knavish husband to his ill desserts and his inequities, whilst you laugh gaily at the amorous intrigues of his wife, pausing where occasion warrants, to commiserate with the woes of her lover.
“What I want is this,” replied the lady, “In the month of January that is now approaching, I want a garden, somewhere near the town, that is full of green plants, flowers, and leafy trees, exactly as though it were the month of May. And if he fails to provide it, let him take good care never to send you or anyone else to me again. For if he should provoke me any further, I shall no longer keep this matter a secret as I have until now, but I shall seek to rid myself of his attentions by complaining to my husband and kinsfolk.
Gardens Symbol Timeline in The Decameron
