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

it “pumpkin,” to preserve the English idiom, “pumpkinhead” being our equivalent for the Italian “melon,” used in the sense of dullard, noodle. ↩

According to the commentators, “baptized on a Sunday” anciently signified a simpleton, because salt (which is constantly used by the Italian classical writers as a synonym for wit or sense) was not sold on Sundays. ↩

Syn. confusedly (frastagliatamente). ↩

La Contessa di Civillari, i.e. the public sewers. Civillari, according to the commentators, was the name of an alley in Florence, where all the ordure and filth of the neighbourhood was deposited and stored in trenches for manure. ↩

Nacchere, Syn. a loud crack of wind. ↩

Syn. smelt (sentito). ↩

Laterina, i.e. Latrina. ↩

Lit. broom-handle (Manico della Scopa). ↩

Lit. “do yourself a mischief, without doing us any good”; but the sequel shows that the contrary is meant, as in the text. ↩

I.e. what he is worth. ↩

Bucherame. The word “buckram” was anciently applied to the finest linen cloth, as is apparently the case here; see Ducange, voce Boquerannus, and Florio, voce Bucherame. ↩

I.e. in needlework. ↩

“It was the custom in those days to attach to the bedposts sundry small instruments in the form of birds, which, by means of certain mechanical devices, gave forth sounds modulated like the song of actual birds.” —⁠Fanfani ↩

Syn. that which belongeth to us (ciò che ci è), ci, as I have before noted, signifying both “here” and “us,” dative and accusative. ↩

I.e. procure bills of exchange for. ↩

I.e. we must see what is to be done. ↩

I.e. having executed and exchanged the necessary legal documents for the proper carrying out of the transaction and completed the matter to their mutual satisfaction. ↩

The song sung by Pamfilo (under which name, as I have before pointed out, the author appears to represent himself) apparently alludes to Boccaccio’s amours with the Princess Maria of Naples (Fiammetta), by whom his passion was returned in kind. ↩

According to the Ptolemaic system, the earth is encompassed by eight celestial zones or heavens; the first or highest, above which is the empyrean, (otherwise called the ninth heaven), is that of the Moon, the second that of Mercury, the third that of Venus, the fourth that of the Sun, the fifth that of Mars, the sixth that of Jupiter, the seventh that of Saturn and the eighth or lowest that of the fixed stars and of the Earth. ↩

D’azzurrino in color cilestro. This is one of the many passages in which Boccaccio has imitated Dante (cf. Purgatorio, c. XXVI II 4⁠–⁠6, “… il sole.⁠ ⁠… Che già, raggiando, tutto l’occidente Mutava in bianco aspetto di cilestro,”) and also one of the innumerable instances in which former translators (who all agree in making the advent of the light change the colour of the sky from azure to a darker colour, instead of, as Boccaccio intended, to watchet, i.e. a paler or greyish blue), have misrendered the text, for sheer ignorance of the author’s meaning. ↩

Scannadio signifies “Murder-God” and was no doubt a nickname bestowed upon the dead man, on account of his wicked and reprobate way of life. ↩

I.e. balls for a pellet bow, usually made out of clay. Bruno and Buffalmacco were punning upon the double meaning, land and earth (or clay), of the word terra. ↩

Scimmione (lit. ape), a contemptuous distortion of Simone. ↩

Chiarea. According to the commentators, the composition of this drink is unknown, but that of clary, a sort of hippocras or spiced wine clear-strained (whence the name), offers no difficulty to the student of old English literature. ↩

I.e. the doublet. ↩

I.e. do me a double injury. ↩

Syn. goodly design of foresight (buono avviso). ↩

Giovani di tromba marina. The sense seems as above; the commentators say that giovani di tromba marina is a name given to those youths who go trumpeting about everywhere the favours accorded them by women; but the tromba marina is a stringed (not a wind) instrument, a sort of primitive violoncello with one string. ↩

“Your teeth did dance like virginal jacks.” —⁠Ben Jonson ↩

Adagiarono, i.e. unsaddled and stabled and fed them. ↩

I.e. hog. ↩

Lit. a backbiter (morditore). ↩

I.e. conjured him by God to make peace with him. ↩

I.e. from a serious or moral point of view. ↩

Apparently Laodicea (hod. Eskihissar) in Anatolia, from which a traveller, taking the direct land route, would necessarily pass Antioch (hod. Antakhia) on his way to Jerusalem. ↩

I.e. arrectus est penis ejus. ↩

See note 375 in the third story of Day 8. ↩

I.e. fortune. ↩

Cattajo. This word is usually translated Cathay, i.e. China; but semble Boccaccio meant rather the Dalmatian province of Cattaro, which would better answer the description in the