The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (best classic books of all time txt) 📕

clock. ↩

The table of Boccaccio’s time was a mere board upon trestles, which when not in actual use, was stowed away, for room’s sake, against the wall. ↩

I.e. to take the siesta or midday nap common in hot countries. ↩

I.e. three o’clock p.m. ↩

I.e. backgammon. ↩

Or procurators. ↩

A Florentine merchant settled in France; he had great influence over Philippe le Bel and made use of the royal favour to enrich himself by means of monopolies granted at the expense of his compatriots. ↩

Charles, Comte de Valois et d’Alençon. ↩

Philippe le Bel, AD 1268⁠–⁠1314. ↩

The Eighth. ↩

Sic. Cepparello means a log or stump. Ciapperello is apparently a dialectic variant of the same word. ↩

Diminutive of Cappello. This passage is obscure and most likely corrupt. Boccaccio probably meant to write “hat” instead of “chaplet” (ghirlanda), as the meaning of cappello, chaplet (diminutive of Old English chapel, a hat), being the meaning of ciappelletto (properly cappelletto). ↩

I.e. false instruments. ↩

A “twopence-coloured” sketch of an impossible villain, drawn with a crudeness unusual in Boccaccio. ↩

I.e. if there be such a thing as a holy and worthy friar. ↩

I.e. ex voto. ↩

It will be noted that this is Boccaccio’s third variant of his hero’s name (the others being Ciapperello and Cepparello) and the edition of 1527 furnishes us with a fourth and a fifth form i.e. Ciepparello and Ciepperello. ↩

I.e. a story. ↩

I.e. of God’s benignness. ↩

Lit. cardinal brethren (fratelli cardinali). ↩

Lit. losing (perdendo), but this is probably some copyist’s mistake for podendo, the old form of potendo, availing. ↩

I.e. stood sponsor for him. ↩

Lit. amorous (amorose), but Boccaccio frequently uses amoroso, vago, and other adjectives, which are now understood in an active or transitive sense only, in their ancient passive or intransitive sense of lovesome, desirable, etc. ↩

Compagne, i.e. she-companions. Filomena is addressing the female part of the company. ↩

Lit. his church (sua chiesa); but the context seems to indicate that the monastery itself is meant. ↩

Lit. a pressure or oppression (priemere, hod. premere, to press or oppress, indicative used as a noun). The monk of course refers to the posture in which he had seen the abbot have to do with the girl, pretending to believe that he placed her on his own breast (instead of mounting on hers) out of a sentiment of humility and a desire to mortify his flesh ipsâ in voluptate. ↩

An evident allusion to Boccaccio’s passion for the Princess Maria, i.e. Fiammetta herself. ↩

Or standard-bearer. ↩

I.e. the One-eyed (Syn. le myope, the shortsighted, the Italian word [Il Bornio] having both meanings), i.e. Philip II of France, better known as Philip Augustus. ↩

I.e. with sword and whips, a technical term of ecclesiastical procedure, about equivalent to our “with the strong arm of the law.” ↩

I.e. a lover of money. ↩

A notorious drinker of the time. ↩

I.e. money. ↩

“And everyone that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name’s sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life.” —⁠Matthew 19:29. Boccaccio has garbled the passage for the sake of his point. ↩

Syn. gluttonous (brodajuola). ↩

I.e. gleemen, minstrels, storytellers, jugglers and the like, lit. men of court (uomini di corte). ↩

Dinne alcuna cosa. If we take the affix ne (thereof, of it), in its other meaning (as dative of noi, we), of “to us,” this phrase will read “Tell somewhat thereof,” i.e. of the cause of thy melancholy. ↩

I.e. Latinist. ↩

Lit. was (era); but as Boccaccio puts “can” (possono) in the present tense we must either read è and possono or era and potevano. The first reading seems the more probable. ↩

I.e. have most power or means of requiting it. ↩

Fem. ↩

Uomo di corte. This word has been another grievous stumbling block to the French and English translators of Boccaccio, who render it literally “courtier.” The reader need hardly be reminded that the minstrel of the middle ages was commonly jester, gleeman and storyteller all in one and in these several capacities was allowed the utmost license of speech. He was generally attached to the court of some king or sovereign prince, but, in default of some such permanent appointment, passed his time in visiting the courts and mansions of princes and men of wealth and liberty, where his talents were likely to be appreciated and rewarded; hence the name uomo di corte, “man of court” (not “courtier,” which is cortigiano). ↩

I.e. those minstrels.