The Decameron : Benediction Classics : 9781789431087 : 1789431085 : 20 May 2020 : "Giovanni Boccaccio's work taught citizens how to maintain mental wellbeing in times of epidemics and isolation." - The New Statesman. In 1348 the plague struck Florence with devasting fury--striking dead fully three quarters of its population. Seven young women and three young men fled the plague-ridden city to a deserted villa in the countryside. To pass the evenings and remember their former lives, each member of the party told a story according to the theme for the night. By the end we have these one hundred wonderfully vivid stories. These are tales of love, passion, jealousy, and pride as well as of profit and loss; ribaldry, licentiousness, farce, trickery and deceit are a constant thread, but with a moral undercurrent. Boccaccio's miniatures give a window onto life at the time and show a society on the cusp of change, with the renaissance virtues of quick-wittedness, intelligence and sophistica