The Decameron: The Popular Translation of J.M. Rigg

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J.M. Rigg 's translation of The Decameron was originally published in London in 1903.

It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Boccaccio begins with a description of the Black Death and leads a group of seven women and three men who flee from plague-ridden Florence to a villa in the (then) countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the time, each member of the party tells one story for each one of the nights spent at the villa. Although fourteen days pass, two days each week are set aside: one day for chores and one holy day during which no work is done. In this manner, 100 stories are told by the end of the ten days.


Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) was an Italian writer and  humanist, one of the founders of the Renaissance. He studied business but abandoned it eventually to pursue his literary interests. In 1350 Boccaccio met Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-1374), one the most important figures in the beginnings of the Renaissance and Humanism.