Giovanni Boccaccio

The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio

Before the storytelling sessions begin, the ten young Florentines, seven women and three men, known as the Brigata, gather at the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella and together they decide to escape the Black Death by leaving the city to stay. in a villa in the country for the next two weeks. Each agrees to tell a story every day for ten days. The stories are told in the garden of the first villa in which the company is housed, which is located a few kilometers from the city. Under the Pampinea rule, the first day of storytelling is an open topic. Although there is no theme assigned to the stories this first day, six are about one person censoring another and four are satires of the Catholic Church.