The Decameron:

Balm for a Ravaged Society

Undergraduate Honours Thesis

2008

Meghan Masterson

Supervisor: C. Sutherland

 

 

Contents

 

I - INTRODUCTION

• The Presence of Stories .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .1
• A Description of Narrative Theory .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  . 2
• Narrative as Therapy .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  . 5

 

 

II - CONTEXT OF THE DECAMERON

• The Black Death: Origins and Symptoms .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  . . .7
• Enter Boccaccio .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  . . . . . 12
• A Description of the Decameron .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .        14
• Medieval Methods of Medicine and Storytelling as Prescribed Healing  .  .  .  .  18

 

 

III - APPLICATION OF NARRATIVE THERAPY TO THE DECAMERON

• Structuring an Environment for Healing .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  . 22
• Narrative Therapy and the Decameron: Specific Tales .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .26
• The Motif of the Heart .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   . . . . 33

 

 

IV - CONCLUSION

• Boccaccio's Defense .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  45
• Influence of the Decameron .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .    47

 

Bibliography .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .  .    .  .  .   .  .  .  . .  .  51

I - INTRODUCTION

 

The Presence of Stories

 

           Stories are an inherent part of everyday life. We do not always notice the presence of stories in our lives because they are constantly weaving their way through spoken or written words, like sparkling webs of creativity, open to meaningful interpretation and fresh re-telling. For the purposes of this essay, I am going to define a story as a narrative, which can be true or fictitious. Stories are meant to entertain, amuse, instruct, or interest the audience. There is a wide range of possibilities for the forms that a story may take, and this indicates how important stories can be to society and culture. Narrative theorist Robert Fulford believes that "narrative began its life on earth in the form of gossip, simple stories told by one individual to another" (Fulford, 1). Stories may be complicated, filled with important hidden meanings that could lead the way to transcendence or enlightenment, or they may be simple and entertaining. Whether they are presented in a high or low style, the fact remains that stories have a significant role in our lives. I have always loved stories, both hearing or reading them, and writing or telling them. It was this interest that piqued my imagination when one of my classmates gave a presentation about narrative theory. I was fascinated by the idea that stories have a greater significance than to provide entertainment; a notion that I had always believed in, but had never before encountered as a formal concept.

 

 

A Description of Narrative Theory

Narrative theory includes the idea that entertainment makes up only a small part of the function of stories. It emphasizes the significant place that stories have in society, currently and throughout history, and in all cultures. There is no such thing as "just a story" (Fulford, 6). Narrative theory asserts that these stories are filled with meaning that is central to the way we function as human beings. Robert Fulford, an enthusiastic narrative theorist, and probably one of the most relevant in terms of today's world of mass media, explains it well: "Stories are how we explain, how we teach, how we entertain ourselves, and how we often do all three at once. They are the juncture where fact and feelings meet. And for those reasons, they are central to civilization-in fact, civilization takes form in our minds as a series of narratives" (Fulford, 9).

           Narrative theory can also have more personal uses than the daunting task of creating civilization. People often use stories to form a self-identity. Fulford describes these as our "essential stories" and says that they are the ones that we tell ourselves, and others, in order to explain our personal histories and define who we are (Fulford, 13). Sometimes these stories are true, and other times they are false. In some cases, a person may rely more heavily on the false stories, for they create an identity that is desired, and not necessarily based on the truth. "Fictions of the self" are "central to our identity, and if they fail us we may fall apart" (Fulford, 13). An example of a very compelling fictional "self-story" is that of Grey Owl, who was actually an Englishman who adopted a new name, culture, and way of life so successfully that very few people were aware of his original identity until after his death (Fulford, pg 25-27).

Jeremy Holmes also believes that narrative theory is important in terms of one's sense of self. He says that the self is not a "fixed and pre-existing entity" but an "autobiographical self, formed out of the interplay between agency and contingency, needing to be ‘told' to another or ‘storied' before it can come into being" (Roberts, 52).

Alan Parry and Robert E. Doan write a very detailed and clear description of the forms and applications of narrative theory. Like most narrative theorists, they emphasize that storytelling is an inherent part of everyday life and the development of identity. A central theme to their view of the use of narrative in therapy is that storytelling is a means of making the world, one that is with us from birth, for we live in a world based on stories and roles (Parry, 37). The idea that stories are the creators of the world is particularly fascinating, and is a central, although sometimes overlooked, element to narrative theory. Parry and Doan discuss this idea, and enhance it by looking at the smaller ways in which this idea can be broken down for increased understanding. A quotation from Heidegger helps to explain the importance of stories in the formation of the world we live in: "the work of art emerges in the gap between Earth and World, or what I would prefer to translate as the meaningless materiality of the body and nature and the meaning endowment of history and of the social" (qtd in Parry, 36). Parry and Doan extend this notion by building upon the ideas of other narrative theorists, such as Phyllis Nussbaum, who argues that "stories, in short, contain and teach forms of feeling, forms of life" (qtd in Parry, 37).

Robert A. Neimeyer also asserts that people are "inveterate meaning makers-weavers of narrative that give thematic significance to the salient plot structure of their lives" (Neimeyer, 67). Taylor has commented that "we live in stories the way fish live in water, breathing them in and out, buoyed up by them, taking them from our sustenance, but rarely conscious of this element in which we all exist" (Taylor, qtd in Roberts, 10).    Narrative theory "emphasizes the idea that we live storied lives" (Brown, ix). Narrative theory also offers the belief that these stories can give us enhanced understanding of both our world and ourselves. A basic tenet of narrative theory is that "we are born into stories; they nurture and guide us through life" (Roberts, 10). In some ways, narrative theory is about becoming conscious of the stories, and taking an active role in the way that they can give guidance or insight to aspects of one's life, or of society in general. It is important to be aware that in narrative theory, stories are not only tools of description, they also "create and reflect social life" (White, qtd in Brown, xxi). In terms of metaphor, narrative theory is like a mirror that can give reflection of the way things are, and help one to gain better understanding of issues. But it is also like clay, which starts out shapeless and cold, but can be transformed into something beautiful, such as a Grecian vase, which is a functional tool, but is also filled with meaning through the painted figures on the sides.  

It is the ability of stories to hold meaning that creates the power of narrative theory. Stories "hold and preserve precious meanings; they are chalices, cribs, and arks, ubiquitous and universal; as wayfarers they carry culture, seeding it in any fertile and receptive soil and leaving their traces as some kind of semantic detritus" (Roberts, 8). In some ways, a story can be viewed as a mystical vessel of meaning, a Grail of information. This is possibly the most important contribution of narrative theory. The belief that stories, new or old, different or similar, can be represented in a wide variety of ways means that there is "no simple binary between the known and the unknown" (Brown, xxiv). It does not matter if a story is true or not-it is the ways in which it can be interpreted that provide the heart of the story. All narrative theorists posit that story-telling is a natural human function, whether it is through gossip or composing heroic tales to share around the fire.

 

Narrative as Therapy

A further refinement of narrative theory is therapy. Jeremy Holmes, in his article "Defensive and creative uses of narrative in psychotherapy: an attachment perspective" argues that "narrative forms one half of a duality that lies at the heart of psychotherapy" (Roberts, 49). A staunch supporter of narrative theory, Holmes asserts that the duality can be expressed in a variety of ways, including narrative and its deconstruction, prose and poetry, primary and secondary processes, and story and image. This is an interesting line of thought, as it provokes the idea that there is more to narrative therapy than just telling the story of one's life in a few bare words. It opens the door to the beauty of storytelling, not only for pleasure, but for healing and for gaining a deeper understanding of complex emotions or events. It is not only the end result of the story that is important-the way in which it is told, the words that are selected, the structure of the sentences, the development of a setting that can be imagined clearly-are key elements of storytelling, even for those who are not consciously trying to be wondrous storytellers, but are merely explaining an episode in their lives. The possibilities are vast.

It is a fairly small step to connect narrative theory to narrative therapy. Holmes presents the idea that a person's life is comparable to an autobiography being told as it unfolds by explaining that "there is always an ‘other' to whom the ‘self' is telling his or her story, even if in adults this takes the form of internal dialogue" (Roberts, 52). This idea is particularly fascinating because Holmes acknowledges that not every person seeks out, or indeed, requires therapy, but that narrative is a natural way of life for people, and even those who are very private and introverted may experience this through internal dialogue, rather than actually speaking with another person about the details of his or her life. Of course, healing stories do not necessarily have to be one's own story; tales of other people can have a therapeutic effect for individuals who can access and connect to a story that is relevant to them. The meaning of a story is different for everyone, and, in terms of theory, the same story can begin the healing process for two people suffering for different reasons (Roberts, 8).

Neimeyer is a therapist who specializes in grief therapy, and one of his strategies for helping his patients who are unable to cope with their grief is to understand that it is natural to turn to storytelling. In keeping with the idea in narrative theory that everyone's life is a story that is continually being told, Neimeyer is aware that a major loss can alter the bereaved individual's sense of identity (Neimeyer, 67). Since intense grief can change the identity of a person, his version of narrative therapy for grief counselling is to "shift away from the presumption that "successful grieving" requires "letting go" of the one who died" (Neimeyer, 66). It is more important to come to terms with the loss than to shove it into the past in an attempt to forget it. 

Like Neimeyer, Parry and Doan instil an awareness of the importance of emotions in their extension of narrative theory into the realm of therapy. They develop the idea that emotions can be seen as narrative constructs, and this ties in nicely with the significance that stories are given in the construction of culture in the world. The most notable aspect of the theories put forth by Parry and Doan is that they describe narrative therapy very strongly in terms of writing. They often refer to the therapist as "editor" and the patient as "writer" or "storyteller." This word choice is important because it gives a feeling of gentleness to narrative therapy; it is not the therapist jumping to conclusions and giving directions to the client; rather, it is a complex and positive relationship where the patient has the power in the telling of their own story, and the therapist/editor is there for guidance and clarification.

           Once I gained an understanding of narrative therapy, I searched for an appropriate work of storytelling to apply it to. Few medieval works of fiction have been interpreted and re-interpreted as extensively as the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. When I began thinking about stories that might be interesting in terms of narrative therapy, this collection of tales came to my mind almost immediately. I had read it once before, and enjoyed it immensely as a work of entertainment. However, it is a book that can be read on many more levels than pure amusement. It is a vast collection of stories featuring diverse characters from all levels of society: humour, tragedy, love, and even tidbits of advice.

II - Context of the Decameron

The Black Death: Origins and Symptoms

 

The Decameron was written at a time of crisis in society-the Black Death. This was a time in history when horror and death became a part of every day life. Thousands died, painfully, and families broke apart as people began to fend for themselves, even abandoning sick relatives in hope of self preservation.

The term "Black Death" was coined during the sixteenth century. Written accounts of the outbreak that began in 1348 tell us that the people who lived during the time period referred to the disease as the "pestilence," the "plague," or, sometimes, the "great mortality" (Aberth, 1). The title of Black Death is extremely appropriate, however, for the appearance of the pestilence brought a dark sense of foreboding, fear, and despair for the future. Louis Sanctus, who lived in Avignon during the 1348 outbreak, describes a very bleak situation when he writes that "whenever one infected person dies, all who see him during his illness, or visit him, or have dealings with him in any way, or carry him to his grave, straightaway follow him..." For the purpose of this thesis, I will continue to refer to the plague as the Black Death, simply because the name has become nearly synonymous with dread, misery, and death-exactly the things which Boccaccio sought to alleviate when he wrote the Decameron.

The cause of the Black Death remains unclear. Some scholars and scientists have accepted that the disease was bubonic plague, spread by the bites of fleas infected with the bacillus. Other researchers cite numerous differences between the pestilence of the 1340s and the bubonic plague of 1890s in the Asia Pacific, and believe that the great mortality that Boccaccio writes of was actually a distinct and unique disease, not bubonic plague. Others suggest that the Black Death was a combination of bubonic plague and other illnesses. (Byrne,18-25) A more radical idea is offered by Mike Baillie, who believes he has found evidence that the Black Death may have been caused by atmospheric disturbances due to meteoric activity. His argument is backed up by close examinations of tree and ice rings. However, the truth of the matter is that no one can really know for certain, as the event happened over five hundred years ago. Similarly, there is much controversy over the place of origin of the Black Death, as some scientists believe it began in China, while others argue that the location of southern Russia is more plausible to explain the east-west spread. Nevertheless, all Black Death scholars agree that the Black Sea was the doorway for the spread of the disease between Europe, Asia, and the Mediterranean (Byrne 6). The important fact in terms of the Decameron remains the same no matter what the origins or causes of the Black Death-it was an incredibly virulent disease that succeeded in exterminating approximately one-third of the population of Europe[1] and creating a fearful society, where self-preservation often became more important than familial ties and compassion for humanity. Many people lost hope, believing that the Black Death signified the end of the world and the wrath of God against society for its sins.

A description of the symptoms of the Black Death may be useful in order to begin to comprehend the devastation that it wreaked upon society. If a person was to contract the Black Death as it was experienced in the mid 1300s, the first sign would generally be a fever. Sometimes this was extremely high, but a mild fever was also common, and just as deadly, in a stealthy way, for he or she might not feel very ill at all. Soon discomfort would give way to pain as the person would begin to feel "disturbed internally" (Savonarola, qtd in Byrne 167). At some point, sooner in some, later in others, the dreaded black buboes, able to strike a person numb with the terror of what they symbolize, would appear. These painful dark swellings developed in the armpits, neck, or groin areas. An increase in fever might occur, and the victim would experience a feeling of weakness and debilitation, a feeling doubly frightening because it renders one helpless. This feeling would be accompanied by strong headaches, vomiting, spitting up of blood, difficulty breathing, bad breath, and rank sweating (Aberth, 23). The victim's skin might become patchy, and small pustules would likely appear and disappear, as they would discharge the pus almost constantly (Savonarola, qtd Byrne 168). The pain might be so great that one would be unable to sleep, but would instead fall into a delirium or stupor that, according to Michele Savonarola, who wrote about the pestilence in 1447, would make the person seem "demented and dull-witted" (Savonarola, qtd in Byrne, 168.) The vomiting might increase, and be either "green, like a leek leaf and stinking, or...red darkened with blackness" (Savonarola, qtd in Byrne 168). In either case, this would further signal that the illness was mortal. If the victim's skin began to take on a greenish tinge, it meant that death was reaching with a sure and steady hand. Death would most likely occur within three to six days after the onset of the symptoms (Aberth, 23).

It was possible to survive the Black Death. Aberth tells us that 10 to 40 percent of bubonic plague victims recovered without medical intervention (Aberth, 23). He is speaking of the bubonic plague of the late 1800s, but it is true that some people did survive the Black Death of the mid 1300s.[2]

However, even if one survived the Black Death, or managed to escape becoming infected with it at all, the situation was still very bleak, as Boccaccio describes in the introduction to the Decameron. The fear of contagion was so great that "brother abandoned brother, uncle abandoned nephew, sister abandoned brother, and often wife abandoned her husband. And - what is even more extraordinary and almost incredible - fathers and mothers refused to visit or care for their own children, as if they had not belonged to them" (Boccaccio, 9). It was, very sadly, not uncommon for a person who caught the pestilence to suddenly find themselves abandoned, left to fend for themselves against the inexorable progress of the disease. Upon the appearance of the black buboes, most healthy people would flee for their lives, often to the country, where it was thought that the air was purer and therefore, the chances of catching the plague were less. Indeed, this is almost exactly what happens in the beginning of the Decameron: the ten main characters find themselves alone, and decide to journey together to a country villa, where they may survive the Black Death together.  Pampinea, one of the characters who is often seen as the leader of the group, assuages her own worries of being cowardly by pointing out that the companions are not abandoning anyone in Florence, arguing that they themselves have already been abandoned, since their family members, "either by dying or running away from death" have left them all alone (Boccaccio, 17).

Pampinea also articulates her fear of remaining in her house, which is now empty except for one loyal serving maid. She explains, "Wherever I go or stay around my house, I seem to see the shades of those who are departed. They no longer have those faces that I used to see, but terrify me with a horrid appearance which they have recently acquired" (Boccaccio, 15). The recently acquired appearance can only refer to the greenish, blistered faces of the dying and the newly dead. It is easy to see that any type of escape from the horrors of daily life during the Black Death would have been a welcome balm, to soothe fears, ease losses, and give hope for the future.  

 

Enter Boccaccio

          

           Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313 in Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a well-to-do merchant, Boccaccino di Chellino. The identity of his mother is unknown today, probably because Boccaccio was formally recognized and adopted by his father, and went to live with him. In 1319, Boccaccio's father married a young bride, Margherita dei Mardoli. When Giovanni was fourteen, his father was sent to Naples by a large Florentine banking company. He went with his father, and did not return to Florence until he was twenty-eight (Drees, 58).

Although it is now his best-known work, the Decameron was only one of many works that Boccaccio wrote. Many of his early books were written during his years in the aristocratic circles at the court in Naples, including Caccia di Diana, Filocolo, Filostrato, and Teseida. His works earned him respect as a writer and an intellectual. As well, Boccaccio was familiar with a wide range of styles of writing, and did not limit himself to the classics, as many scholars of the time period did, including his friend Petrarch. Bocaccio was as "familiar with historical tales, chivalric romances, exempla-a type of sermon-and the bawdy French fabliaux, as he was with Ovid and Homer" (Kim, 4). He also drew from literary tradition, and popular and oral literature. With such a vast knowledge of all types of storytelling, it is no wonder that Boccaccio managed to write a collection of tales which still entertains people today. The number of influences that he drew upon in his writing must have helped to increase the enjoyment of his readers, for there would be something for all to enjoy, even taking differing tastes into account. 

Considering all of Boccaccio's prestige as a writer, he is often seen today as one of the early master storytellers. Indeed, the role of storyteller is one that Boccaccio consciously immersed himself in, even going so far as to change his name in order to enhance this role. His last name, Boccaccio, is slightly different from his father's, Boccaccino, and with purpose. The word "boccaccia" means "ugly mouth" and this can be seen as a metaphor for the many masks that a storyteller must wear (Kuhns, 53).  As well, Boccaccio's stories in the Decameron are not always kind, sometimes quite the opposite; yet he tells the story nonetheless, no matter how unflattering it may be. We cannot know to what degree Boccaccio interpreted his assumed name, but it is likely that he would have included another of his name's connotations, "one who puts on masks" (Kuhns, 53).

           It appears that Boccaccio was creative, determined, and personable. Although his father intended his son to become a merchant, Boccaccio had other ideas, and at age eighteen, managed to convince his father to let him leave the business. Boccaccino agreed on the condition that Giovanni agree to study canon law. The study of law required a strong knowledge of Latin, a language which Boccaccio was already fairly proficient. He spent much time at the royal library in Naples, and his charming personality must have enabled him to make useful connections, for he was befriended by the royal librarian, and became a regular visitor at the Angevin court. He was probably first introduced to the court by his friend Niccolò Acciaiuoli, who eventually became the seneschal for Catherine de Valois Courtenay. Giovanni Boccaccio must have been comfortable consorting with the wealthy, privileged class, even with people with royal titles. However, as a bastard son with humble roots on his mother's side, Boccaccio may have been accepted by the lower ranks of society. This gave him an interesting place in society, for he was probably able to interact with people of all levels of income and education. His vast knowledge of the ways of life for people of all levels of society accounts for the wide range of characters in his masterpiece, the Decameron.

 

A Description of the Decameron

The book is made up of one hundred stories, told by ten characters whose histories comprise the "frame story," of the brigata and their plight. The short stories that they tell include people from all aspects of medieval life, from kings and queens to nuns and priests to beggars and everyone in between. Since Boccaccio was "at home with the very highest, intellectual elite as well as in the tavern," the reader gets a "relativistic [sic] perspective" on the culture of Florence before and during the Black Death (Kim, 4-5).

This is the situation in which the Decameron begins: seven young women and three young men have fled the plague to a country villa, where they proceed to each tell one story a day, for ten days, totalling one hundred stories. This process of storytelling as an escape from the terror of the Black Death fascinated me. It is has been said that stories often satisfy the soul more than the mind (Parry, 1) and this is certainly true in the case of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. I believe that the Decameron can be seen as a strategy of healing by narrative in a society devastated by the Black Death. The ten main characters, often referred to as the brigata, represent people who have experienced the horror of the disease, people who need to be healed. Their retreat to the relative safety of the country gives them an opportunity, through group story-telling, to practise a form of narrative therapy. As well as the characters, the audience of the Decameron in the 1300s also found healing through the stories, through entertainment, distraction, and most importantly, various forms of interpretation that can now be related back to narrative therapy. Through the diverse stories, the Decameron provides an honest and clear depiction of life at the dawn of the Renaissance, and this was helpful to the readers in rebuilding society after the Black Death. Other scholars, such as Potter, agree that the Decameron was "deliberately written in order to preserve those older values that Boccaccio found to be valid" (Potter, 7). Potter also asserts that Boccaccio intended his tales to "examine [the] social universe and learn its values" (Potter, 7). She suggests that this is the reason why Boccaccio included a very persuasive and vivid description of the horrors and atrocities of the Black Death as part of the introduction to the book-an understanding of the context of the plague is integral for understanding the book's meaning.

 Many of the stories within the Decameron were not new[3], but rather were tales that had been circulating as part of the rich oral culture that predominated before the age of nearly universal literacy. Some of the tales were probably folktales, which "tend to reflect the belief system and the world of their intended audience" (Bottigheimer, 211). The stories represented everyday life, previous to the chaos of the Black Death, with routines, problems, and joys that the audience of the 1300s could enjoy and relate to. The comforting familiarity of some of the tales probably increased audience enjoyment. It also gave personal meaning to the audience, especially in terms of psychological healing. "Narrative, as opposed to analysis, has the power to mimic the unfolding of reality" (Fulford, 15). This means that, as a collection of descriptive stories, the Decameron is more powerful as a therapeutic work than if it were a collection of facts and advisories for the future. It worked as a balm for society ravaged by the Black Death by painting a bittersweet memory of the way the world was, and could be again. The Decameron also acknowledges that change is inevitable, and the portrait it creates also shows capacity for growth in society and culture. On an individual level, specific stories within the book could help readers to deal with grief, loss, death, and chaos. Boccaccio certainly intended the Decameron to provide some sort of comfort to the readers of the book. After the last story, he adds his own conclusion to the work, which closes with the line "remember me if reading these stories happens to do any of you any sort of good" (Boccaccio, 766).

The Decameron was probably written between 1349 and 1353, during the time period in which the Black Death was ravaging much of the western world. Interestingly, aside from in the Introduction, the Black Death is scarcely ever mentioned in the book. Boccaccio describes the horrors of the plague in order to "present the Decameron as the result of a therapeutic project" (Forni, 159). Once the storyline is turned over to the brigata and the short stories that they tell each day, the Black Death is mentioned only a handful of times, and hardly ever plays a role in of the stories.

Most narrative therapists believe that the power of storytelling is sustained by its strong roots in cultural values rather than facts. In terms of the Decameron, the stories feature characters from different cultures, notably protagonists or antagonists who are "Saracens," as well as characters from Sicily or parts of Italy other than Florence. Italy was not a unified country during the time in history that Boccaccio wrote the Decameron, so a character from Pisa may indeed represent someone from a different culture. The feudal system that was in place during 14^th Century Italy also gave rise to different cultures through the different social ranks. The upper-class brigata led very different lives than some of the lower, poverty-ridden characters they describe, and it is very possible that the act of story-telling creates a deeper understanding for the different ways that people of different social ranks would live. As well, the characters in the one hundred stories of the Decameron range widely, with some stories featuring women as protagonists or villains, while in others the men are the traditional heroes or antagonists.

           Of course, one of the well-known traits of the Decameron is that many of the stories are of a sexual nature, a feature that alternately entertains and scandalizes readers. If the Decameron is usable as a tool to rebuild society, there is also another possibility for number of stories that have embedded eroticism. It is important to note that in many cases, the characters of the tales are in love. Perhaps part of the reason why Boccaccio included so many erotic tales is to inspire his audience to fall in love, or at the very least, lust. This would most likely result in children being born, and possibly lead to a surge in the recreation of the family unit, something society lacked during the terror of the Black Death. After all, "Florentines recognized the need for an increase in births" as a result of the high number of deaths, and the age of marriage dropped significantly after 1350 (Byrne, 114). If this was not Boccaccio's intention, at least these types of tales were entertaining to his readers, and could provide temporary distraction from the pain of their losses.

Richard Kuhns, a scholar of the Decameron, sees a different and very significant implication of the Decameron. He observes that the collection of stories, some of which were folk stories in general circulation, and others which Boccaccio invented himself, "convey a sense of unbounded narrative power, a sense that the teller of tales could have continued indefinitely" (Kuhns, 24). He also takes from the Decameron the idea that to hear stories grants a kind of immortality, and that Boccaccio implies "To Live Forever, Tell Stories" (Kuhns, 24). He explains that stories can have transcendental power, and that, since they remain with those who hear them, and can be re-told, stories can create a type of immortality, an ongoing thread to connect people and generations.  For me, this idea is particularly fascinating because it supports my thesis that one of the functions of the Decameron was to rebuild society after the Black Death, and thus ensure that civilization continues.

 

Medieval Methods of Medicine and Storytelling as Prescribed Healing

 

           I have discussed the utter inability of doctors to prevent or cure the Black Death. It was thought that the disease could be transferred through clothing or "pass directly to another person through touch, respiration, or even sight" (Byrne, Daily Life in the Black Death, 48). Doctors based their knowledge on the four humours, and suggestions for prevention or treatment of the Black Death were often geared toward maintaining a balance between these. Recommendations varied immensely, and often included avoiding certain behaviours, such as physical exertion, including running, jumping, or having sex. Bathing was also thought to open the pores and allow the disease to enter, and so was often avoided, which very likely increased the spread of disease-causing germs. It was generally believed that the plague was airborne, which provoked many varying recommendations to either seek out or avoid fresh air. Some doctors suggested making sure that all doors and windows were tightly closed, and to hold one's breath or breathe through a cloth when near sick people (Byrne, 47). Others approached the problem in an opposite manner, advising lots of ventilation to have access to "healthier northern winds" Byrne, 47). Most medieval physicians thought it was beneficial to burn aromatic things, such as pine, juniper, or ambergris burnt with camphor or aloe wood, which could purify the air and create a more pleasant environment.  It was also very common for people to carry an "amber apple" near their nose. There were various recipes for these, but they generally included ingredients such as ambergris, amber, camphor, aloes, musk, and rosewater or rose petals (Byrne, 47). As these remedies show, medieval healers tended to prescribe things to counteract the putrefaction of the plague, and many of them, such as the amber apples, which likely had a pleasing scent, may have succeeded in increasing morale and creating a more comforting environment. [4]

Strong emotions were also thought to be dangerous, especially those such as anxiety, fear, anger, or jealousy, which heated the body and allowed the poison of the disease to enter. Sadness was also to be avoided, as it cooled the body too much and could also weaken one's constitution (Byrne, Daily Life, 24, 51). Dr. Jobus Lincelius of Zwickau[5], in Germany, wrote that:

All physical exertions and emotions of the mind should be avoided, such as running, jumping, jealously, anger, hatred, sadness, horror or fear, licentiousness and the like; and those who, by the grace of God, are in a position to do so, may spend their time in relating tales and stories with good music to delight their hearts, as music was given to man by God to praise God and give pleasure to mankind. (qtd in Byrne, Daily Life in the Black Death, 51)

The ten characters of the Decameron are following current medical advice when they flee the tainted air of the city for the cleaner country and spend their time telling stories, singing songs and trying not to be too afraid or sad about their situation. Byrne also confirms that when the ten young characters "relax listening to fine music and tell gentle tales and eat delicate foods, they are following the very prescriptions left to us" (Byrne, Daily Life, 51). Not all scholars of the Decameron would agree that the stories within could accurately be called "gentle tales," but most would concur that they nevertheless served various therapeutic purposes.

It is debatable whether the ten young people succeed in avoiding all of the emotions listed, for the stories they tell are sometimes sad or licentious. They certainly delight their hearts with music, for the end of each day features a song by sung by one of the characters and accompanied by the others.  The characters also dance to their music, which might have been medically prohibited as physical exertion. As well, many of the tales of the Decameron are funny, and Boccaccio frequently describes his narrators as laughing merrily, which could also be classified as physical exertion that warms the body too much. However, these actions cheered the narrators up and gave them pleasant memories to counteract their terrible ones of disease, grief and loss, and were definitely much more effective for healing that trying to be emotionally moderate at all times, a feat which is likely impossible, especially given the setting of the Decameron. Today, we know that there are branches of therapy directed towards dance and music, so it seems that these activities have always been enjoyable to people, whether in distress or not, and in spite of medical warnings against exertion.

Advice such as that given by Dr. Jobus Lincelius lasted for three centuries. For three hundred years, the plague waxed and waned, and medical knowledge was not improved. At least the advice of telling stories and enjoying music was not totally useless, as much of the medical treatment for the Black Death was. Story-telling was powerless for treatment or prevention of the Black Death, but for those people who survived or had not yet fallen ill with the dreaded disease, it was a balm to soothe fears, aid in coming to term with losses, provide hope and distraction, and remember the ways of life before the chaos struck. [6] 

 

 

 

 

III - APPLICATION OF NARRATIVE THERAPY TO THE DECAMERON

Structuring an Environment for Healing

There has been much research done about post-traumatic stress disorder.[7]  It seems likely that the ten main characters in the Decameron, and indeed, most of society in Florence of the time, would be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or a similar psychological effect. The traumatic event of the Black Death striking Florence with brutal force was not actually ended in the course of the ten days of the setting of the Decameron; but, to the brigata, it may have felt this way because they successfully, if temporarily, distanced themselves from both the city and the plague. This distancing played a key role in the healing process for the ten characters of the Decameron. An important part of recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder is the "restoration of conditions of safety and predictability" (Silove, 3).

This is exactly what the brigata of the Decameron do when they leave Florence to seek the safety of the country villa. The seven young women agree that it would not be dishonourable for them to flee the city, for their families are dead or gone, and, as Pampinea explains, "the dregs of our city, fattened with our blood, call themselves undertakers and strut about the place in mockery of us, riding and running around and taunting us with our distresses in ribald songs" (Boccaccio, 15). Pampinea's words paint for us a picture of the chaos of plague-ridden Florence. The structure of society was breaking down, and the growing number of the dead meant that any survivors (even the lowest, most uncouth citizens), could fill empty jobs and charge vast amounts of money, especially in the case of undertakers, doctors, or any people who had jobs that meant being near a person who was ill with or dead of the Black Death. People dealt with the breakdown of society in different ways. Some became increasingly religious, and others decided that they might as well live for the pleasures of food, wine and sex before they died. It seems likely that Pampinea is referring to the latter, and that she had experienced some type of harassment, probably sexual, or perhaps from lower class people who mocked her for being upper class. The Black Death affected people from all ranks of society, a fact that may have caused some of the lowest citizens some glee, for at least the huge number of deaths and breakdown of social structure allowed them to rise a little. 

It is not difficult to see why Pampinea and the other women would like to restore conditions of safety and predictability. However, the women, particularly Filomena, believe that women are "fickle, quarrelsome, suspicious, faint-hearted and cowardly" and that a "woman's head is a man" (Boccaccio, 17).  The seven women believe that it would be better for them if they had some men to accompany them out of Florence, not only for increased safety, but to keep them from quarrelling or becoming overcome with fear. Unfortunately, all of their close male relatives have succumbed either to the Black Death or to the terror of it, and are gone. Fortunately, at this point, three young men enter the church where the ladies are. These three young men are "charming and well-mannered, and even with the city in such disarray they [are] going about trying to see the women they loved-and as it happen[s], those three women [are] all contained within the group of seven ladies" (Boccaccio, 18). The three young men are also related to several of the young ladies; presumably they are cousins. The brigata is now complete. The women are happy to have the company of the men who can provide protection, male attention, and common sense. The men are glad to be in the presence of the beautiful women, particularly those whom they are in love with. Conditions of safety and predictability have been temporarily restored.

Another factor for recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder is "stabilizing the social environment and creating opportunities for survivors to resume their livelihoods and take control of their lives" (Silove, 3). Filomena's insistence that the young women need the company of men when they go to the country villa means that the social environment is stabilized. Both the men and the women are used to being in the company of the opposite sex, and now this will continue. The brigata also have created for themselves an opportunity to resume their lifestyles and take control of their lives. By making the decision to leave the city of Florence, they are taking control. It is important to remember that all of the ten narrators of the Decameron are from high-born families. Although the young men may have held jobs as merchants or bankers, none of them had been accustomed to extremely hard work, particularly the ladies, who probably had spent most of their time sewing, dancing, singing, and storytelling until such time that they would be married. By passing the time at the country villa through story-telling, singing, dancing, and mild flirtations, the characters are, more or less, resuming their lifestyles. The ladies all bring their personal maidservants, who have conveniently survived, and the young men also bring a servant each. None of the characters has to cook or clean at the villa, just as they would not have at home. The place they have created at the country villa is as structurally consistent with life before the Black Death as possible.

Another one of the narrative strategies of grief therapy is to develop a collaborative attitude. Therapist Robert A. Neimeyer notes that "the most useful homework assignments are likely to be mutually designed rather than therapist assigned" (Neimeyer, 69). The ten main characters of the Decameron all have the dual role of both therapist and patient. They are all healing together, and their decision to each tell one story a day is a mutual one. This means that their story-telling is likely to be more effective for healing than if one of them had told the other nine characters to do it. As well, all ten of them agree that they should take turns reigning for a day, and choosing the theme of the stories for that day. This decision to always have a king or queen for the day is an important structural one. One of the biggest issues for dealing with trauma and grief is the loss of roles, which can turn into a threat to one's sense of identity (Silove, 4). Undoubtedly, the ten main characters of the Decameron have experienced a loss of roles. The disappearance of their families mean that they have lost roles as daughter, sister, brother, son, etc. "Loss of family and social networks [can also result] in widespread grief that can become complicated and disabling in a minority of survivors" (Silove, 4). The union of the ten young people at the country villa creates a social network that includes men and women, the opportunity for new roles and preservation of self-identity, and a structured environment that promotes healing. Silove also explains that "systems that confer existential meaning (eg, religion, spirituality, social cohesion, culture) are pivotal to the process of recovery in that they promote a sense of faith, hope, and social reintegration" (Silove, 4). The one hundred stories of the Decameron encompass varied examples of all of types of existential meaning, and this is why they are important for healing in the face of death, terror, and chaos. 

Narrative Therapy and the Decameron: Specific Tales

Understanding new roles and the meanings of social systems is only one part of healing. There is also a personal perspective, and Holmes explains that "psychotherapy, like art, ‘holds a mirror up to nature'" (Roberts, 57). The patient explains his or her feelings, and these are then reflected back to them by the therapist in order to gain perspective. The patient makes sure that the therapist's reflection "feels right" or possesses "verisimilitude," and finally, a story is formed (Roberts, 57).

This idea of psychotherapy sharing a reflective kinship with art is intriguing and relevant to the Decameron. The stories "feel right" and re-create a vibrant world that was slipping away and inexorably changing under the cloak of disease. It is true that some of the stories in the Decameron may not be technically plausible, yet they still capture an element of human nature that could be understood in 1350, and can still be understood over 650 years later.

An example of an implausible story that still entertains people today, and certainly did in the 1300s, is that of day nine, story six. In this tale, a young man called Pinuccio is in love with a young girl, and she with him. He enlists the aid of his friend Adriano, and they pretend to have returned from a long journey, and the girl's father offers them lodging for the night. All of the beds are in the same room, and Pinuccio goes to his lover's bed once everyone is asleep. While he is there, the girl's mother rises to investigate a noise, and upon returning, accidentally gets into bed with Adriano. Pinuccio returns to bed, but goes to the empty space in the father's bed, and thinking he is Adriano, tells him all about the girl. The father and Pinuccio begin arguing, and the wife, realizing her error, pretends that Pinuccio is talking in his sleep, explains that she was sharing a bed with her daughter to protect her virtue, and saves everyone's honour. All the bed switching and whispering in the shared room of a relatively poor family does not sound very realistic. Surely in such a small room, it would be obvious if people were sneaking around in the dark because one would be able to hear it. However, the theme of mistaken identities and being in the wrong place at the wrong time has been a popular one for stories, as can be seen in the Decameron, Shakespearean plays such as A Comedy of Errors, and even stories today. In fact, this particular story is present as the Reeve's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, though in slightly different form. Such a comedy strikes a chord in human nature, and audiences are able to suspend their disbelief and simply enjoy the tale, temporarily placing their worries aside. The story "feels right" in a way that audience members can relate to the faults of human nature, even if the events themselves are not necessarily believable. 

This picture of life in Florence on the brink of the Renaissance is an example of social, rather than personal, healing, and relates back to Holmes' theory of patients putting their feelings into words. Perhaps Boccaccio was putting feelings into words when he described the world that was slipping away under the clutches of the Black Death. We cannot assume that these were Boccaccio's personal feelings, but it is very likely that there was a general feeling of panic in all levels of society. The Black Death caused change, and with immense speed. The old world crumbling, and a new one was beginning to dawn. Although there is always hope to be found in new beginnings, it is not unreasonable that the loss of some ways of life should be mourned. The Decameron is not a book that dwells on the past in the throes of grief, although there certainly are elements of painful loss. It also sharply criticizes the corruptions of society, including those that existed in parts of the Church. A notable story for this is the fourth story of the first day, told by Dioneo. In this story, a monk becomes physically attracted to a young girl and persuades her to come visit him in his cell. The abbot discovers the monk in a compromising position, but does not make himself known yet, in order to decide upon a punishment. The monk hears the abbot at the door, and pretends that he is ready to smuggle the girl out of the monastery. He tells her to wait for him, and then goes to the abbot and, straight-faced, says that he did not finish bringing in wood for the day. He goes to do this, and the abbot goes to the cell, thinking to bring all of the monks to see the latter monk's disgrace. He decides against this, lest the girl be the daughter of an influential citizen, so he enters the cell in order to send her home. However, the girl is tearfully embarrassed, and the abbot begins to comfort her, and also ends up desiring her. The monk comes back and escapes punishment because the abbot has become guilty of the same transgression against the holy vows of chastity.

This story criticizes the immoral behaviour of some of the priests of the Church. Of course, not all holy men were able to so easily forget their vows to God, but some of them did, and Boccaccio pokes fun at the hypocrisy that sometimes existed in the Church, something that was often frowned upon by many people throughout society. The Decameron does explain the feelings of the society which it describes: a reader who strongly disapproves would be able to grumble about the corruption of the Church, and might know of a similar story to the one related by Dioneo, and readers who do not have such a strong moral stance on the subject would be able to laugh at the hypocritical behaviour of the abbot and the monk who were unable to resist temptation.

This story is a typical one for Dioneo to tell; he insists upon freedom from the theme of the day, and from the second day on, always tells his story last. Dioneo believes that entertaining stories are the best sort for the brigata to tell. When the group of young people arrive at the country villa, Dioneo tells the others: "I don't know what you propose to do with your thoughts; but as far as mine are concerned, I left them inside the city gates when I came out of Florence...And so I ask you either to dedicate yourselves to enjoyment and laughter and singing together with me...or else give me leave to go back in search of my sad thoughts and stay in the ravaged city" (Boccaccio, 20). Dioneo opts for distraction as the best form of healing, and this is accepted and enjoyed by the other members of the brigata, although they do not all respond to such a simple form of therapy. Dioneo's work is part of a "deliberate verbal therapeutic" however, and Dioneo serves to temper the seriousness of the brigata's mood (Weaver, 128).  

One of the tenets of narrative therapy is that the therapist should try to be reasonably neutral, and refrain from making harsh judgements about what is morally right or wrong (Parry, 121). As a storyteller, Boccaccio is fairly neutral; his characters are sometimes extremely good and admirable, and other times they are crude and selfish scoundrels, as often shown in Dioneo's stories. Although there is occasional commentary on the characters in the stories made by the brigata, for the most part, Boccaccio simply lets the stories be told and the reader can draw his or her own conclusions. He appears to have faith in the intelligence of his audience, and does not need to dictate morality to them. This is similar to another aspect of narrative therapy, which is that "therapists should constantly be on the alert for their clients' strengths and resources" (Parry, 125). Although it would certainly be false to call Boccaccio a therapist and the audience of the Decameron his clients, it is true that he, as the author, seems to be aware of some of the abilities of his original audience. It seems that he sees a resilience and capacity for hope in humanity, and the ability to enjoy the small pleasures in life, to laugh over a comedic story, to sigh over a romantic one, despite the death, loss, and sometimes familial betrayal that the Black Death brought. Indeed, Boccaccio appears to have a strong sense of humour, even in the face of misery, for many of the stories are funny, and he is able to mock himself.

Common consensus is that Boccaccio wrote himself into one of the stories of the Decameron: he is represented by Fra Cipolla, (translated to "Friar Onion") in the final story of Day 6. This tale takes place in Certaldo[8], which was Boccaccio's hometown, and was renowned for its ability to grow onions, so "we can assume the reprobate rascal "Friar Onion" is one of the author's personae" (Kuhns, 65). As well, as Kuhns asserts to further explain Boccaccio's self-representation, Fra Cipolla's language "is that of Boccaccio, as is his ingenuity in telling stories with several meanings and in his quick-witted capacity to confront surprise situations, he demonstrates that he has all the guile and technical agility of the storyteller" (Kuhns, 65).  

The theme of the stories for the sixth day of the Decameron is of people who, "being assailed with some jibing speech, [have] vindicated [themselves] or [have] with some ready reply or reaction escaped loss, peril or shame" (Boccaccio, 423). In the tenth story, Fra Cipolla is visiting his hometown of Certaldo, where he is warmly welcomed. He intends to preach to the townspeople, and show them a feather from the Angel of Gabriel (which is actually a parrot feather). Two young men decide to play a trick on Fra Cipolla, and take the feather out of its box and replace it with a lump of coal. However, Fra Cipolla is "so quick-witted that those who did not know him would not only have taken him for some great rhetorician, but would have sworn he was Cicero himself, or maybe Quintilian", that he is able to think up a quick story to save himself from reproach. He asserts that the coal is one of those that "roasted Saint Lawrence" and tells the tale of that poor martyr, explaining that he keeps this relic in a box so similar to the feather from Gabriel that he got them mixed up (Boccaccio, 452, 457).

This story is interesting for a multitude of reasons, though not all of them relate to narrative therapy. Once again, Boccaccio has managed to tell a tale that is infused with various meanings. Readers today, who believe in the scholarly claim that Fra Cipolla is Boccaccio, will be amused by the elements of immensely inflated praise in the description of Fra Cipolla. It seems Boccaccio was not above poking fun at himself. This story is also significant because in it, Boccaccio presents himself "in all the complexity of artist/writer/painter/preacher/ironic commentator on the Catholic faith, as well as one who dominates his world with absolute controlling confidence" (Kuhns, 66). It is possible to see this story as one that explains how the Decameron is to be interpreted, to which the central key is that there is always more than one interpretation, and that they are all important. In terms of the idea that the Decameron helped to rebuild the society devastated by the Black Death, this means that each story can be understood differently by different readers. Each story holds a truth of the world that they live in, the one that is crumbling away under the weight of disease and loss, and each story can help the reader look to the future by remembering that there was a better time before the plague.

Another of the stories in the Decameron has a similar theme, and can also be interpreted in extremely different ways. It is the first tale of Day six, told by Filomena. In this story, a lady called Madonna Oretta was travelling in the country with a company of ladies and gentlemen. One of the men offers to let her ride with him on his horse, and he will tell her a story to help pass the time. She agrees, but he turns out to be a truly horrendous story-teller, and even though the story itself was good, he "mauled it savagely" until Madonna Oretta was so bored that she was "affected with a sweat and a seizure of the heart, as if she were sick and close to death" (Boccaccio, 427). Unable to stand his storytelling any longer, she tells him that his horse trots too roughly, and asks to be set down on the ground again. Fortunately, the gentleman "could take a hint better than he could tell a story," and took no offense, and spoke of other matters (Boccaccio, 427).

Kuhns interprets this story in completely sexual terms. He sees the theme of horseback riding as a lewd metaphor, and states that the description of her physical reaction of breaking into a sweat and nearly fainting sounds more like "frustrated sexual arousal than true physical attack" (Kuhns, 62). He thinks that Madonna Oretta was expecting an erotic tale, and was disappointed. Since many of the tales in the Decameron are sexually themed, this interpretation is a possible one. However, I think there is another interpretation that can be made, and one that is more legitimate in the interests of narrative therapy. It is simply this: that there is no worse thing than a bad story. As a master storyteller himself, Boccaccio must have despised those who could not tell a simple tale without getting events and characters mixed up, or those who continued to use the same words over and over again in the telling. Following the guidelines of narrative theory, that each story is significant, and those of narrative therapy, where stories can help us to understand ourselves and our world, the moral of the tale of Madonna Oretta is that, if a story cannot be told clearly and well, it is not worth telling. Since stories are so valuable to society in every aspect, particularly for healing and structuring civilization, the story that was (almost) told by the gentleman is utterly worthless.

Madonna Oretta's story also strikes a chord within most people: is there anyone who has not struggled to tell a story clearly at some point? The story recognizes that we are not all wonderful storytellers. Fortunately, stories can be appreciated just as strongly by those who are inept at phrasing them in pleasing ways. Throughout my research, I came across many case studies written by narrative therapists, and a common problem was that the patients had difficulty being able to tell the story of their lives, for it is not easy to speak frankly about one's life, even on an internal level, let alone to a stranger.

 

The Motif of the Heart

 

           The fourth day of the Decameron is significant because of the theme that is chosen for the day. The king of the fourth day is Filostrato, whose name can be translated to mean "frustrated in love" (Doueihi, 1)[9]. His name suggests unhappiness, and this is furthered by his chosen topic for the day, which is tales of men and women whose loves have tragic endings. It is interesting to note that the other members of the brigata are not pleased with the topic, and are very open in expressing their disapproval. Dioneo, who has the privilege of never being restricted to the theme of the day, and always tells his story last of the group, begins with the words, "Now that, praise be to God, these miseries are ended (unless I should choose to make a gloomy addition to such lugubrious fare, and God preserve me from that!), I will not follow such a painful theme any further..." (Boccaccio, 337). Pampinea openly defies Filostrato's decree by telling a tale that makes the other members of the group laugh many times, and although the end of her tale includes the end of a love affair, the reader wonders if the final situation may have worked out for the best in the long run (Day 4, II). As the first story-teller of the day, Fiammetta reminds the group that they came to "make merry" and are now obliged to tell tales which will make them feel sorrowful, and surmises that Filostrato may have done this to "temper the mirth of the foregoing days" (Boccaccio, 280). Since she is not allowed to "modify his wishes," she perversely determines to follow his lead to the extreme and tells the most piteous tale she knows (Boccaccio, 280).

           Fiammetta's tale is tragic indeed. Ghismonda is a young, beautiful, and intelligent woman, and she is adored by her father, Prince Tancredi of Salerno. He delays giving her away in marriage due to his extreme fondness for her, and when Ghismonda is widowed after a short time, Tancredi is very glad to have her back at home in his house. Ghismonda, having discovered new pleasures through her marriage, sees that her father shows no sign of finding her a new husband, and begins to consider taking a lover. She falls in love with Guiscardo, a young man in her father's service who is of excellent character, but of somewhat humble birth. Guiscardo falls in love with Ghismonda as well, and they meet in secret for a long period of time. One day, Tancredi comes to Ghismonda's room to visit her. She is out in the garden, so he sits down to wait for her by the corner of her bed, and draws the curtain around himself, "almost as if he had deliberately hidden himself there" (Boccaccio,282). Tancredi then falls asleep waiting. Unfortunately, Ghismonda and Guiscardo enter the bedroom for an afternoon tryst while Tancredi is asleep, and do not notice him because of the way he is concealed. Tancredi is shocked to learn of his daughter's actions, and remains hidden until the couple have gone. In the night, he has Guiscardo seized by two of the guards, and kept prisoner, and then he goes to confront his daughter. Ghismonda very eloquently argues against her father's disapproval, explaining that he is a man of flesh and blood, and therefore sired a daughter who is the same, not one made of stone (Boccaccio, 285). She concludes her speech by informing her father that if he has Guiscardo killed, she will commit suicide. Tancredi admires "the greatness of his daughter's soul," but does not believe that she would actually kill herself. He gives orders for Guiscardo to be strangled, and for his heart to be removed. Tancredi then, in a cruel gesture which starkly contrasts with the excessive love his bears for his daughter, sends Guiscardo's heart to Ghismonda in a golden cup. Ghismonda is heartbroken when she receives this grisly gift, and weeps copiously over it until the cup is nearly filled with her tears. She then pours poison over the heart, and drinks the liquid, then calmly lies down on her bed with the cup held over her own heart. Tancredi finds her just before death embraces her, and she persuades him in his wild grief to bury her and Guiscardo together.

           This story is significant on many different levels. It can be read as a critique by Fiammetta on the choice of topic that Filostrato has made.  If Filostrato's theme is intended to make his companions feel as despondent as he does, Fiammetta attempts to demonstrate that this is a poor decision (Doueihi, 2). As Doueihi explains:

Fiammetta's story contains a "suberversive quality, a subtle blurring of the roles between lover, beloved, and father that puts the focus of the tragedy not as much on the moribund lover as on the party most vexed by their love - the king. The moral message for Filostrato, therefore, is that by forcing his will upon the others he is likely to cause further injury to himself. Fiammetta, while appearing to defer to Filostrato's authority, is in effect offering a poignant critique of his judgment" (Doueihi, 1).

           This is a fascinating argument, especially in terms of healing. Filostrato seems to be trying to gain sympathy for his sorrowful feelings by using his kingship to instruct the others to tell unhappy tales. Throughout the Decameron, we can see that Filostrato is a melancholy person; aside from Boccaccio's deliberate choice of a name for the character which implies poor luck in love, we know what kind of experiences Filostrato, like many other people, must have had because of the Black Death. Parry and Doan suggest that "instead of focusing on the symptoms that are prominent in a client's narrative, a therapist should focus on what the symptoms depend upon in order to stay in existence" (Parry, 128).  They cite symptoms of depression as an example of a time when therapist should look at a problem in this way. Parry and Doan explain that a person can become caught up in a situation that calls forth these sorts of thoughts and emotions. The character of Filostrato appears to be suffering from depression due to the bleak situation of the Black Death, and he is perpetuating his sorrow and fear through pessimism. We cannot say for certain that Boccaccio intended the readers to interpret Filostrato's personality in this way; after all, these are modern notions of depression, but it seems fairly likely that Boccaccio would have encountered people during the Black Death of the 1350s who were so struck by the horror of the disease that they began to lose sight of the wonderful parts of life. However, theories of narrative therapy have shown that this kind of destructive attitude is not beneficial in overcoming obstacles or past sorrows. Fiammetta recognizes that Filostrato's negative attitude is harmful to himself, and is not helpful to the rest of the brigata either. "By telling a tale about a prince whose amorous jealousy leads to tyranny and bloodshed, Fiammetta provides king Filostrato with a devastating depiction of his failing as rule of the brigata" (Marcus, 1)[10]. In some ways, Fiammetta presents Tancredi as a kind of mirror to Filostrato. Of course, Filostrato's actions are not nearly as drastic as those of the Prince of Salerno, but the mind-set is similar. It is interesting to note that at the end of the fourth day, Filostrato chooses Fiammetta as the queen for the next day.

           In some ways, the tragic story that Filostrato tells on the fourth day complements Fiammetta's tale of Ghismonda and Tancredi. Filostrato's tale uses the motif of a heart, but in a far different way than Fiammetta's story. The king's tale is about two knights of Provence, called Guillaume de Roussillon and Guillaume de Guardestaing who are best friends. De Roussillon has a very beautiful wife, and she and de Guardestaing fall in love and meet each other in secret. When de Roussillon discovers the betrayal of his best friend and his wife against him, he is filled with rage and has de Guardestaing killed. He then presents de Guardestaing's heart to the cook, and gives orders for the "wild boar's heart" to be made into as tasty a dish as possible (Boccaccio, 335). The cook complies, and de Roussillon gives the meal to his wife, who finds it so delicious that she eats every bite of it. When she has finished eating, de Roussillon informs her of the cruel deception, and, shamed and very distressed by the way her husband tricked her into tainting her love, she hurls herself out the window, and her body is broken almost beyond recognition.

It is a gruesome tale. Filostrato's story contrasts with Fiammetta's in many ways. The story of the eaten heart possesses none of the romantic transcendence of the story of Ghismonda and Guiscardo. Ghismonda's graceful death, where she laid herself on her bed, adorned in finery, is very different from the death of de Roussillon's wife (who is given no name). The fact that she is disfigured from her fall increases the contrast between her and Ghismonda, who remained beautiful in death. The characters of the two women are also markedly different. Ghismonda comes across as a strong woman, determined to have love in her life, and when her argument falls on Tancredi's iron opinion, she does not count her life as too high a price. De Roussillon's wife, on the other hand, scarcely ever speaks through out the story, quite unlike Ghismonda, whose eloquent speeches are an important part of the story. Her death is not premeditated like Ghismonda's; struck with horror at the course of events, she lets herself fall out the window without any hesitation. De Roussillon's wife is drawn for the reader as a weak woman, not even worthy of a name, one who would betray both friendship and her marriage vows. She does not consciously choose to end her life, preferring death over life without her love, like Ghismonda, but simply cannot live with the fact that she ate her lover's heart. Although she was completely unaware of the contents of her meal, the eaten heart adds a vulgar note to the story, and it is through this that Boccaccio suggests a "sullying of her love for [de Guardestaing], and thereby calls into question its noble nature (Doueihi, 2).

One of the most important parallels between the two stories is to compare the raw and cooked hearts. In medieval popular belief, the heart was the "physical seat of love in the body" (Doueihi, 2). In both stories, the removal of the heart can be seen as an attempt to physically remove the love from the relationship. In the case of Fiammetta's tale, this does not work, and Tancredi is the one who suffers the most in the end. Guiscardo's heart is raw, and when Ghismonda cries tenderly over it, she is paying homage to the love that the two of them shared. By adding the poison to her tears, she creates a doubled-sided potion "a pharmakon in the double sense of ‘cure' and ‘poison'" (Doueihi, 2). Ghismonda uses the removed heart of Guiscardo to allow their love to triumph over the jealousy of Tancredi. The cooked heart of de Guardestaing, on the other hand, lacks the curative properties of the raw heart in the story of Ghismonda and Guiscardo. "Instead of providing the wife with a medium for a sort of redemption, the cooked and eaten heart serves only to shock and disgust her" (Doueihi, 2).

        It is interesting that the same item can possess such different properties in these two stories. Looking at the motif of the heart from a perspective of healing, the symbol of the cooked heart can be an admonition against trickery and betrayal in relationships. All of the three characters in Filostrato's story play roles as the betrayer and the betrayed, and things turn out tragically for all three of them.

           The theme of the eaten heart is one that has been present in tales that circulated much before Boccaccio's time. Several Greek stories encompass the idea of a body being desecrated by being broken into pieces, which were sometimes eaten: this theme is seen in the legend of the curse on the house of Atreus, the tale of Medea, who slaughters her own children, and in the story of Tantalus, beloved of Zeus until he commits one of the greatest transgressions possible. Throughout history, many stories have demonstrated that cutting up a body, and then eating parts of it, is one of the worst things that a person can do. Indeed, for a long time it was illegal to surgically examine deceased people, as it was seen as a desecration of the body. In his stories of Ghismonda and de Roussillon, Boccaccio is drawing upon the rich history of oral myth and legend that involved the importance of the body. 

           The ninth story of the fifth day is particularly significant in comparison to the tragic tales of day four. The queen of the day is Fiammetta, the lady who so eloquently criticized Filostrato's theme of the previous day. That Filostrato chose her as the next story-telling monarch is an indication that her argument has merit, and that the members of the brigata must not dwell upon unhappy stories when they have so many of their own. The theme of the fifth day is nearly the opposite of the fourth day: the stories are of "what happiness has come to lovers after various cruel or unfortunate adventures" (Boccaccio, 349). The ninth tale is important, not only because of the contents of the story, but because Fiammetta, the reigning Queen, is the one who tells the story. This story is perhaps the most well-known of all the tales in the Decameron. A young, wealthy man called Federigo degli Alberighi is in love with a married woman named Giovanna. He demonstrates his love to her by hosting many tournaments in her honour, and sending her lavish gifts, but she is a woman of virtue, and does not respond to Federigo's advances, remaining faithful to her husband. Federigo loves her according to the codes of chivalry, and continues to admire her from a distance, until he eventually spends all of his money trying to impress his lady, and is forced to retire to his one remaining farm to live in poverty. The only thing of value that Federigo possesses is his falcon, one of the best in the land, which Federigo prized highly and was affectionate of.

           Giovanna's husband falls ill and dies, and Giovanna goes to her country estate with her son. This estate is near Federigo's farm, and Giovanna's son soon becomes acquainted with Federigo, and the two of them often go out hawking. As the summer wears on, Giovanna's son also falls grievously ill. Giovanna, desperate to help her son to recover, tells him that if there is anything he wants, she will get it for him. The boy asks for Federigo's falcon, as he has been secretly coveting it for some time. Giovanna is very reluctant to approach Federigo and request his last, prized possession, when it was because of her that he lost everything. However, she is determined to save her son, and takes one of her ladies with her to his farm.

           Federigo is very surprised and happy to see her, and offers her a meal. He realizes that he does not have any food that is fit for a noble lady like Giovanna, and is compelled to wring the neck of his falcon and have it prepared for the meal. After they have eaten, Giovanna summons the courage to tell Federigo of her request. Stricken, Federigo confesses what he has done, and shows her the feathers and talons of the bird as proof. Federigo is more upset due to his inability to help Giovanna than by the fact that his falcon is dead, and Giovanna realizes that his love for her is deep and pure.

           Unfortunately, her son succumbs to his illness. With no heir to the lands she possesses, Giovanna's brothers press her to remarry, and she insists that she will marry no one but Federigo. Her brothers disapprove at first because of his poverty, but they come to understand his great merit, and consent to the wedding. Federigo and Giovanna are blissfully married. Federigo is restored to wealth, and having learned to take more care with his money and property, lives with Giovanna in happiness for the rest of their days.

           This story is similar to that of Ghismonda and de Roussillon's wife because it also has to do with the consumption of something precious, though in this case it is a bird, not a human heart. The tale of Federigo is also more positive; the eating of something precious is done for sacrifice, not revenge. Sacrifice is an important aspect of chivalric love, which is exactly the way that Federigo loves Giovanna: all of his wealth, land, and even his valuable falcon are not as important to him as his lady, and he is willing to give them all up for her. Fortunately for him, he gained his wealth back, and even earned the love of Giovanna through his unselfish actions. The medieval idea of Fortune's Wheel is clearly present in this tale of the Decameron. Federigo's journey takes him in a full circle of the Wheel, and he ends up even better off than he began. In this sense, the death of Giovanna's son is a necessary element of the story. It demonstrates the turning of the Wheel for Giovanna as well as Federigo, and is particularly important because the son has to die in order for Federigo to be restored to wealth. Sad as the death of a child may be, Boccaccio makes it clear that this was necessary for the happy ending of the story. The boy is merely a tool of the story; he is given no name or distinctive character. As well, the death of Giovanna's son was not quite as tragic in the historical context of Italy in the 1300s as we would see it in modern times. Some might argue that life was more dangerous in the medieval ages, and none would dispute that medicine was infinitely less efficient than it is today. It was not at all uncommon for children to die before reaching adulthood, and though it was always a sorrow to the parents, it was not quite the tragedy that it is today, when such events are less common.

           It is possible to read the happy ending of Federigo and Giovanna, despite the untimely death of her son, as a kind of transcendence of grief. This is something which Neimeyer would approve of, as he rejects the idea that grieving requires letting go of those who have died. Federigo and Giovanna move on with life, as they should, but by beginning a new family through their marriage, they are honouring the memory of Giovanna's son, who, after all, was fond of Federigo. The story of Federigo and Giovanna illustrates that life must continue, and here we see the theme of Fortune's Wheel again. This is a comforting motif for the original audience, and the audience of the brigata, of the Decameron, for it carries the promise that change must come. Circumstances may be terrible now, but fortunes will improve and happiness found again. The Wheel keeps turning.

           The iconography of the falcon, rather than the heart, is extremely significant in the story of Federigo. Boccaccio would have been aware of the symbolism of the falcon. In medieval times, nearly all animals were a symbol for some kind of virtue, such as the lion, in certain contexts, as a representation of Christ.  As it turns out, the falcon holds a similar meaning:

There are two kinds of falcons in religious symbolism: the wild and the domestic. The wild falcon symbolized evil thought and action, while the domestic falcon represented the holy man, or the Gentile converted to the Christian faith. As the favourite hunting bird, the domestic falcon was often represented during the Renaissance in pageants and courtly scenes, and was often held by a page in the company of the Magi (Ferguson, 18).

As a domestic bird, Federigo's falcon is endowed with positive connotations. It can be seen to represent purity and unselfish love-in fact, the falcon is the means of healing in the story. If Federigo had not chosen to kill his falcon in order to present Giovanna with a worthy meal, she would not have learned how truly Federigo loved her, and would probably have consented to her brother's choice of a second husband. Other scholars have similarly seen the falcon as a symbol; B.J. Layman, suggests that Boccaccio was successful in "conferring upon the bird something very like what Auerbach has taught us to call Dante's "figural realism"...the bird figures for us all that Federigo's love has driven him to renounce" (Layman, 12).

           This tale is one of the most well known of those told in the Decameron, and Layman believes that "the admirer of this tale may take satisfaction in the almost certain fact that Boccaccio himself took special pride in it" (Layman, 14). Layman supports this by explaining that this story is the only one where Boccaccio provides an explanation for the origin of the story. Boccaccio, through Fiammetta, tells the audience that there was a very noble and intelligent man in Florence, Coppo di Borghese Domenichi, who having a greater memory and more elegant speech than most other men, liked to tell the story of Federigo (Boccaccio, 405). This man was non-fictive, and was contemporary with Boccaccio, having only lately died (Layman, 14). As well, Layman tells us that the last name of Federigo, Alberighi, belonged to a real Florentine family that had long since vanished (Layman, 14). It is possible that readers of the Decameron in the 1350s would have recognized these names, and enjoyed the story even more due to its familiarity. It is rather soothing that Boccaccio chose to mention characters that had a basis in real life, particularly in the wake deaths brought by the plague. Storytelling can be a happy way to remember those who have passed from the world. For Boccaccio, Federigo and Giovanna are not "mere literature: they embody a part of his people's affective, imaginative, and even moral history" (Layman, 15). Of all the stories in the Decameron, the story of Federigo and his falcon is one that demonstrates most clearly the desire to remember the world before the shadow of the Black Death.

 

IV - CONCLUSION

Boccaccio's Defense

 

Both in its own time, and today, the Decameron has held the power to entertain, inform, and sometimes shock its readers, through the more scandalous or licentious stories. One scholar of Boccaccio, Richard Kuhns, asserts that the Decameron can be referred to as "pimp," and that Boccaccio himself also did so, as the second name of the book, "Prencipe Galeotto," sometimes spelled "Prince Galahalt," can be translated as "Prince of Pimps" (Kuhns, 22). This was probably inspired by the fifth canto of Dante's Inferno (Boccaccio was a great admirer of Dante and wrote a biography of him) where Paolo and Francesca explain that their mutual and sinful seduction was induced by a book, which was, to them, a pimp (Kuhns, 22). Readers of the Decameron might see this as fitting when all of the sexually-themed stories are taken into account. As Kuhns notes, however, though the brigata enjoy stories that are sometimes sexually charged, they "conduct themselves chastely and are in no overt way seductive toward one another. Why then is the book called a pimp?" (Kuhns, 22). Kuhns concludes that Boccaccio must have intended to bring the reader into a sexual relationship with the book, either literally, where readers turn to the book for erotic stories, or, more likely, metaphorically. In this sense, the audience is aware of the potency of stories, and they are also entertained by the jokes and double meanings that Boccaccio uses as sexual references. After all, Kuhns concludes, "Calling oneself a "pimp" anticipates censorious responses and also slyly excites" (Kuhns, 22).
           However, it is important to note that Boccaccio defended himself against the charges of being a pimp. Much of his Author's Conclusion to the Decameron focuses on this, and he reminds the readers that he did not invent most of the tales. As well, he explains why he includes summaries at the beginning of each tale. This is so that readers can "leave aside those which are offensive and read those which are amusing" (Boccaccio, 765). He appears to understand that some readers will heartily enjoy his sometimes ribald tales, and others will be horrified, and acknowledges that

Everything in itself can do good to something, but if it is badly used, it may cause harm to many things; and that is what I say about my stories. If anyone wants to extract bad advice or evil behaviour from these tales, they will certainly not prevent him from doing so, if they happen to contain such evil elements, or can be strained and twisted into containing them. Similarly, if anyone wants to gain benefit and utility from them, they will not refuse to supply those good things (Boccaccio 764).

Boccaccio's elaboration that evil elements will likely have to be forced out of the stories hints that he believes, or at least prefers the idea, that his stories will prove more beneficial than otherwise.

Influence of the Decameron

           Even those who think that Boccaccio's stories were not beneficial cannot contest their popularity and their significance. The Decameron played an important role in the history of narrative. Boccaccio was arguably the first to have a "well-hewn construction of a story with real characters" (Kim, 4). Before Boccaccio wrote the Decameron, the forerunner of the genre was the "novellino, a string of exempla, anecdotes, and quips without a unifying thread," which typically featured stock characters that did not develop as the story continued (Kim, 4). The influence of the Decameron on the literary world was tremendous. Clearly, in today's literature, stories with unifying themes and complex characters are the only thing that is really acceptable to readers. However, the Decameron was the beginning of this kind of genre, and had many imitators soon after its publication, including Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Some of the tales appear both in the Decameron and The Canterbury Tales, with slight modifications to allow for writer creativity. Like Boccaccio, Chaucer also wrote himself into one of his stories, and also with a mocking theme. Chaucer appears as the character of Sir Thopas, the poor fellow who is so terrible and dull at telling a story that his companions cannot bear it and demand that he stop telling it.

The Decameron's influence did not stop at literature, and even had an effect on art of the time period. One scholar of the Decameron explains that Boccaccio was "visualizing all the aspects of this new world [after the Black Death] and doing it almost as a visual artist would do it" (Kim, 4). Botticelli is one of the notable Italian artists who were inspired by the Decameron, and he often painted scenes from the book (Kim, 4).

Scenes from the Decameron are also common in medieval illuminations. I have seen a lovely one of the tale of Federigo and the falcon. The first panel shows Federigo and Giovanna standing in a garden, and the falcon is flying from Federigo's wrist. The second shows the couple sitting at a table, with Federigo proffering the falcon's feet as evidence of his sacrifice. This illustration is attributed to the Master of the Cite des Dames and his workshop (Walther, 288-289). There are also many examples of medieval illuminations that depict scenes from the tale of Ghismonda and Prince Tancredi. These images tend to place Tancredi in different positions in the scene, sometimes in a way that would change the story completely, as in one where he is lying on Ghismonda's bed as the unaware couple stand near him (Ricketts, 55). This illumination was probably designed this way to call to attention the sense of voyeurism and unhealthy love for his daughter on the part of Tancredi that is apparent in the story. Another shows Tancredi hiding behind a door in the first panel, while Ghismonda and Guiscardo embrace, and the prince bringing his daughter her lovers' heart in a cup in the second panel (Ricketts, 49).

For me, studying the Decameron from the perspective of narrative therapy was particularly fascinating because there are three different audiences that can benefit from the stories. The first is the audience of the brigata. Though the ten young people are fictitious characters in the book, they are also important audience members for each of the one hundred stories. The brigata finds healing through shared narrative experiences, especially because they are contemporary with the historical context, and Boccaccio wrote them as believable people who are experiencing the very real horrors of the Black Death.

The second audience is in a similar situation as the brigata. The original readers and listeners of the stories of the Decameron were directly involved in the terrors of the plague and were in dire need of healing. As real people during Boccaccio's lifetime, this audience was the core of the changing society, and Boccaccio was able to relate to their plight completely, as he was part of it as well. This is the audience which Boccaccio intended to heal with his story-telling, as it was this population that was most affected by the plague and the changes it wrought. Narrative therapy was most valuable for this audience: though the brigata use stories as healing, they are still fictional characters. However, the original audience could relate to the brigata, and this increased the power of the Decameron as a therapeutic work because the contemporary readers could find hope in the brigata's success.

Since the Decameron became such a famous work, and is still studied extensively to this day, the third audience is composed of modern readers of Boccaccio's work. The book provides a memory of late medieval life, and the stories succeed in painting a vibrant, informative, and enthralling picture of people in different ranks of society, ages, and genders. It gives modern readers a strong impression of what life was like before the Black Death in Florence, and allows the reader to empathize with the hindrances and triumphs of the characters, many of whom conquer problems that people can still relate to today. Although the Black Death is not a threat for us today, people may still find healing on a personal level through the narrative therapy of the Decameron.

           As Boccaccio realized, the Black Death changed the social structure of medieval Europe. The vast number of deaths weakened the feudal system because there were suddenly not enough people to work each estate. This created opportunities for the villeins to leave their villages and seek a better life, often one that was more comfortable or offered higher wages. The social structures loosened by the pestilence created space for a new world to begin formation. Boccaccio, as a person caught up in the middle of such turbulent times, must have understood this. The function of his stories is partly to help recreate new social systems and to rebuild the broken society. Yet, there is sometimes a wistful quality to the Decameron, a sentiment that remembers how the world was: filled with grandeur and ceremony, corruption and kindness, humour, and the daily struggle for survival. The Decameron reflects upon the waves of change that were washing across the land, and manages to look simultaneously backward and forward, in order to rebuild society from the ashes of the Black Death, and to provide healing for the survivors to be imbued with the strength to continue and to grow.  

          

Bibliography

 

Aberth, John. Black Death : the great mortality of 1348-1350 : a brief history with documents. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.

 

Baillie, M.G.L. New Light on the Black Death: the cosmic connection. Tempus, 2006

 

Boccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2004. Translated by Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, based on John Payne's 1886 translation.

 

Bottigheimer, Ruth B. "Fairy-Tale Origins, Fairy-Tale Dissemination, and Folk Narrative Theory" Fabula, Vol. 47, Isssue 3 /4 , 2006. pg 211-222

 

Brown, Catrina. Narrative Therapy: making meaning, making lives. Sage Publications, 2007.

 

Byrne, Joseph. Daily Life in the Black Death. Conneticut, Greenwood Press, 2006

 

Byrne, Joseph. The Black Death. Conneticut, Greenwood Press, 2004.

 

Cantor, Norman F. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made. New York: The Free Press, 2007

 

Decameron Web. Prof. Massimo Riva. Created 1994/1995, Brown University. Last Accessed on April 9, 2008.

<http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/dweb.shtml>

 

Doueihi, Milad. "The Lure of the Heart" Stanford French Review. Spring/Fall 1990, Vol. 14, pg 51 - 68.

 

Doueihi Milad. "Cor ne Edito." MLN, 1993, Vol. 108, Issue 4, pg 696 - 709.

 

Drees, Clayton J. Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300-1500: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Inc, 2005. (This book is on ebrary) pg 51 - 53

 

Ferguson, George. Sign and Symbols in Christian Art. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.

 

Forni, Pier Massimo. "Therapy and Prophylaxis in Boccaccio's Decameron" Romance Quarterly, Spring 2005, Vol. 52, Issue 2, pg 159-162

 

Fulford, Robert. The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Limited, 1999

 

Hayward, Mark. "Critiques of Narrative Therapy: A Personal Response" Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. December 2003, Vol. 24, Issue 4

 

Innui, Thomas S. and Richard M. Frankel. "Hello Stranger: Building a Healing Narrative that Includes Everyone" Academic Medicine. May 2006, Vol. 81, Issue 5, pg 415 - 418

 

Kelly, John. The great mortality: an intimate history of the Black Death, the most devastating plague of all time. HarperCollins, 2005.

 

Kim, Caroline. "Tales of Beggars and Nuns, Pirates and Kings" Humanities May/June 2002, Vol. 23, Issue 3

 

Kuhns, Richard. Decameron and the Philosophy of Storytelling: author as midwife and pimp. New York: Colombia University Publishing, 2005

 

Layman, B.J. "Eloquence of Pattern in Boccaccio's Tale of the Falcon" Italica. Spring 1969, Vol. 46, Issue 1, pg 3 - 16

 

Le Goff, Jaques. "Head or heart" Zone 3, 1989, pg 13 - 27.

 

Marcus, Millicent. "Tragedy as Tresspass" An Allegory of Form: Literary Self Consciousness in the Decameron. Stanford, Anma Libri, 1979. pg 48-73.

 

Parry, Alan and Robert E. Down. Story Revisions: Narrative Therapy in the Postmodern World. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994

 

Potter, Joy Hambuechen. Five Frames for the Decameron: Communication and Social Systems in the Cornice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.

 

Ricketts, Jill M. Visualizing Boccaccio: Studies on Illustrations of The Decameron, from Giotto to Pasolini. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Roberts, Glenn and Jeremy Holmes. Healing stories : narrative in psychiatry and psychotherapy. Oxford University Press, 1999.

 

Sherberg, Michael. "The Patriarach's Pleasure and the Frametale crisis: Decameron IV-V" Romance Quarterly, 1991, Vol. 38, Issue 2, pg 227 - 238.

 

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Weaver, Elissa B., ed. The Decameron: First Day in Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.

 

Walther, Ingo F. and Norbert Wolf, eds. Masterpieces of Illumination "Illustration of the ninth tale of the fifth tale of Boccaccio's Decameron: the story of Monna Giovanna and Federigo Alberighi." By the Master of the Cite des Dames and his workshop. Cologne: Taschen, 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] No one knows for certain how many people died during the Black Death of the 1300s. Some areas were harder hit than others, and record keeping was not as efficient as it is today, and some records have not survived. As well, censuses were often taken by hearths, not heads. After the death of family members, people often moved to live with other relatives or friends, thus eliminating a hearth even if the some family members were still alive. Naphy and Spicer "posit a population of Western Europe in 1290 of 75 to 80 million, and a mid-Plague estimate in 1430 of 20 to 40 million, for a maximum population drop of 75 percent" (Byrne, 59).

[2] Norman Cantor, in his book In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made, tells us that according to O'Brien's theory, which has been affirmed by 18 scientists worldwide, there may be a genetic relationship between the Black Death and the HIV virus. Apparently, up to 15% of the Caucasian population may have immunity to the HIV virus because about approximately 15% of people are descended from plague survivors (Cantor, 20-21).

[3] In fact, in his Author's Conclusion, Boccaccio firmly denies allegations that he invented all of the stories. This is part of his defense of some of the more scandalous or licentious stories in the Decameron (Boccaccio, 764).

[4] "Theriac" is a possible exception to this, as it generally contained chopped up snake and up to 60 other ingredients to create a fairly noxious sounding potion. It was thought to be beneficial because it had so many ingredients, and usually only the wealthy could afford it. Byrne gives a recipe used by Dr. Diogo Afonso for the King of Portugal with the following instructions: "Get a badger drunk on wine mixed with ground gold, seed pearls, and coral; decapitate and drain the blood from the animal; mix the blood with a powder made of many specific spices and heat; mix this with a paste made of the badger's heart, liver, skin, and/or teeth; mix this with wine and vinegar and let sweat. Use within one year." Apparently, the doctor's wife consumed some that was six years old, and she died from it. No surprise there.

[5] Byrne does not give a specific date for Dr. Jobus Lincelus, but it is fairly clear that he was writing in medieval times.

[6] In the eighteenth century, some doctors recommended coffee "newly available in London shops, as prophylactic" against the disease (Byrne, Daily Life, 52). This suggestion for prevention of the disease is given several hundred years after the outbreak about which Boccaccio writes, and is from a different country. However, I think it is still important to consider. Coffee shops were places where people could gather to interact, gossip, tell tales, and read stories in those new-fangled newspapers, and have philosophical or religious discussions. Whether or not coffee had any impact whatsoever on prevention or cure of the plague, the conversations that took place in the coffeehouses certainly had similar functions as the story-telling in the Decameron, but the location of a coffee shop was more widely available that random country villas outside Florence. 

 

[7] Post-traumatic stress disorder is defined as: "a condition which can develop following exposure to an extremely stressful situation or series of events outside the usual range of human experience, which may manifest itself in recurrent nightmares or intrusive vivid memories and flashbacks of the traumatic event, and in withdrawal, sleep disturbance, and other symptoms associated with prolonged stress or anxiety." This definition is from the Oxford English Dictionary Online, available through the University of Calgary library website.

[8] Some biographies of Boccaccio cite his hometown as Florence, such as the one written by Drees. Boccaccio is often associated with Certaldo, and Kuhns cites this as Boccaccio's hometown. It is difficult to know for certain, but it is probable that Boccaccio lived in both of these cities at different times of his life.

[9] This source is from The Decameron Web, a website created by Brown University, which, according to Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, was launched in the mid 1990s (Boccaccio, LXXXI). The website provides useful summaries of other scholars' interpretations of the Decameron, which are often blended into sections that are divided by theme on the website. The section I took this information from is cited to Milad Doueihi and Jacques Le Goff. While works by both authors will be cited in the bibliography, I will now cite quotations simply to Doueihi.
See:   <http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/themes/heart/heart.shtml>

[10] Though the Decameron Web includes Millicent Marcus and Michael Sherberg in its bibliography on the section that discusses Filostrato's reign, I will continue to cite quotations to Marcus, to make things less complicated.