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DECAMERON: the young Florentine bourgeois who fled the city during the plague

Boccaccio’s Decameron, a literary masterpiece of the 1300s, is more relevant than ever.

Who would have thought that Giovanni Boccaccio, born in Florence or Certaldo in 1313, not only would have become one of the three leading names of Italian literature alongside Dante and Petrarch, but his most famous work, the Decameron, would become more applicable than ever almost seven hundred years later.

Considered a scandalous and immoral work upon first publication, it was included in the Index of prohibited books as per the request of Pope Paul IV and received many complaints due to the bucolic eroticism that filled its pages. The Decameron tells the story of a group of young people, three boys and seven girls, who escape the black death (bubonic plague) that invaded Florence and Europe in 1348 by taking refuge in the hills outside the city, passing the time with stories, songs, dances and games.

A group of friends who use creativity and imagination to survive contagion and boredom during a pandemic. 

Sound familiar?

Photo credits: https://www.museiempolesevaldelsa.it/


It’s time to take the Decameron back in hand. Boccaccio’s one hundred tales on multiple themes and with multiple narrators told the Florentines of his time that nothing is insurmountable, not even the plague; everything can be defeated thanks to resourcefulness and intelligence of mankind, a fundamental theme in Humanism.

Alternatively, you can always watch the cinematographic adaptations of Boccaccio's masterpiece, the best known of which is Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1971 "The Decameron".

Photo credits: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Decameron


THE HOUSE OF BOCCACCIO

Practically in the middle of the main street of the medieval village of Certaldo, is the Casa di Boccaccio, now a museum. Today we can find a faithful reconstruction of the original house, rebuilt following its total destruction by a bomb during the Second World War.

Inside the museum, there is a medal collection of 20 coins made by the master Bino Bini for the 6th centenary of the poet's death, dedicated to his most important work, the Decameron, and to the protagonists of the ten days described in the work.

Do not miss the extraordinary specialised library which, in addition to collecting numerous valuable copies of the Decameron, illustrated by important artists and translated into almost all the languages ??of the world, also documents the importance of Boccaccio and Petrarca's contribution to the development of a new geographical science in the mid-late 14th century.

Photo credits: https://www.museiempolesevaldelsa.it/


Ticket and Prices

The Boccaccio museum is part of the MuDEV, Museo Diffuso Empolese Valdelsa, an immersive experience that transforms you into a pilgrim of art with a single large open-air museum that invites slow tourism; you decide how to experience the ‘journey’: on foot, by bicycle, on horseback or even in a camper van, motorbike or with the windows of the car rolled down.



Photo header credits: https://www.museiempolesevaldelsa.it/