History Literature / TheDecameron

* DirtyOldMonk: At ''least'' half of all male clergymen in the stories are also shameless leches.

* FarEast: The story of Mithridanes and Nathan (Day 10, story 3) takes place in "Cathay,"[[note]]What Europeans called China during Boccaccio's lifetime[[/note]] a little bit outside the capital (probably Khanbaliq, i.e. UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}).

* FlatCharacter: The ten storytellers. Or so many readers think; some scholars think there's actually a lot more to them than meets the eye.

* HypocriticalHumor: Day 9, Story 2 is about an abbess who was woken up at night with a report that one of her nuns harbors a lover. She catches the girl red-handed, assembles everyone, starts lecturing her about what a terrible and unforgivable sin this is... until the nun politely points out that upon being woken up, the abbess put on her head not the required headdress, but [[SexDressed her own night guest's pants]]. The abbess hurries to change the tone of her lecture to one of forgiveness and the difficulties of resisting temptation.

* IncompatibleOrientation: Pietro, a DepravedHomosexual whose wife is pretty much TheBeard. (Day 5, story 10). Pietro's wife ends sharing her lover with him.
* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: The tales' titles consist of brief summaries of their entire plots.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: For years, the Marquis of Saluzzo test his wife's patience and obedience by mistreating her, pretending to kill their both children and pretending to dump her for a twelve-year-old girl. Jesus... (Day 10, Story 10)

* TakeThat: Boccaccio really hated corrupt clergymen. And Venetians. There is story after story after story of corrupt or hypocritical clergymen, who fool around like rock stars while pretending to keep their vows of chastity,

* WearingItAllWrong: Day 9, Story 2 is about an abbess who was woken up at night with a report that one of her nuns harbors a lover. She catches the girl red-handed, assembles everyone, starts lecturing her about what a terrible and unforgivable sin this is... until the nun politely points out that upon being woken up, the abbess put on her head not the required headdress, but [[SexDressed her own night guest's pants]]. The abbess hurries to change the tone of her lecture to one of forgiveness and the difficulties of resisting temptation.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A lot of the people in the stories are historical figures- most of the time, they are merchants/aristocrats who were contemporaries of Boccaccio, but there's also some figures who are well-known today, such as the painter Giotto.

* ICallHimMisterHappy: Rustico's "The Devil" in Day 3, story 10.

* Day 1, story 1: Ciapelletto, a notoriously wicked Italian AmoralAttorney and scoundrel who has been a murderer, forger, perjurer, and DepravedHomosexual (among many other things), falls terminally ill while on business in UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, where almost absolutely no-one knows him. His slightly less evil companions bring a monk from a nearby convent to hear his confessions and give him last rites. Ciappelletto proceeds to tell him the most ridiculous lies about his life and how holy he's been the whole time, while pretending to repent over venial sins. The monk, fooled by this feigned display of piety, gives a sermon on his life and ends with everyone there believing him a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity genuine saint and attributing miracles to him.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: "Putting the Devil back into Hell" (Day 3, story 10). It is for this reason why this tale was not translated in earlier English translations of the Decameron.

* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: (Day 9, story 9) teaches that you have to beat your wife if she is being obstinate. Ouch!

* AWizardDidIt: An eden garden in winter (Day 10, story 5) and teleportation of a man from Saladin's palace to Pavia (Day 10, story 9).

In the midst of TheBlackDeath, ten wealthy young Florentines--three men and seven women--decamp to a countryside villa with their retinue, and pass their days in storytelling, an attempt to reclaim a world that everywhere is dying. Over the course of ten days they tell a hundred stories between them, full of generous aristocrats, clever tricks, {{toilet humor}}, lustful women, wicked churchmen and lots of illicit sex. Boccaccio himself steps out from the shadows twice (once in the introduction to the fourth day, once in the epilogue) to deliver impassioned, hilarious, [[SelfDeprecation self-deprecating]], and (in the case of the epilogue) incredibly obscene defenses of his work.

* Day 1, story 1: Ciapelletto, a notoriously wicked Italian AmoralAttorney and scoundrel who has been a murderer, forger, perjurer, and DepravedHomosexual (among many other things), falls terminally ill while on business in UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, where almost absolutely no-one knows him. His slightly less evil companions bring a monk from a nearby convent to hear his confessions and give him last rites. Ciappelletto proceeds to tell him the most ridiculous lies about his life and how holy he's been the whole time, while pretending to repent over venial sins. He is completely believed by the monk, who preaches a sermon on his life and ends with everyone there believing him a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity genuine saint and attributing miracles to him.]]

* Day 3, story 1: Masetto da Lamporecchio feigns to be dumb to win a seat as gardener in a convent. He ends up having sex with all of the nuns.
* Day 3, story 10: Long considered the most obscene and was censored or removed in translations for a significant period.[[note]]A non-Christian Tunisian girl (whether she is Jewish or Muslim is unclear and is in any case unimportant to the story) converts to Christianity as she hears the happiest way of life is to serve God. She travels far to find a monastery to teach her the ways of God but is rejected as it is feared that monks might lust after her. Eventually, she finds a young hermit to teach her and as he is overcome with lust for the beautiful girl, he thinks of a way to sleep with her. Long story short, the hermit calls his cock "the Devil" and her pussy "Hell", and he teaches her how to put the Devil back into Hell. She enjoys it so much, she tires the hermit out and marries someone who doesn't subsist on limited food.[[/note]]
* Day 4, story 5: Lisabetta and the lowly Lorenzo love each other in secret, but her three brothers find out, lure Lorenzo away and kill him. He appears to her in a dream and leads her to where his body is buried, and she cuts of his head and hides it in a jar of earth where she plants basil. Her brothers note her obsession with the jar and steal it away, and she dies of grief.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Girolamo after two years comes back to find his lover married to another man and she completely forgot about him. [[spoiler: He dies after failing to win her back and she dies from remorse.]]

* DistinguishingMark: Teodoro is recognized by a strawberry shaped birth mark (Day 5, story 7).

* DudeShesLikeInAComa: Messer Gentile goes hugging and kissing his lover's corpse, just to find out her heart is still beating.(Day 10, story 4).

* HormoneAddledTeenager: Surprised? The storytellers are all in their late teens or early-to-mid twenties. They are essentially unsupervised. An inordinate proportion of the stories either have to do with sex or hint strongly at sex. And there is much {{subtext}} indicating that each of the three guys is trying to get into at least one of the girls' pants (or in Dioneo's case, it would appear that he's trying to get into all of their pants). So no wonder there's so much fucking in the stories.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: It is very clear that Ciapelletto is a man who lived a criminal life, even lying about having lived a life of sanctity and faking contrition for his sins when confessing to the friar. The friar, completely put on, goes on to preach about Ciapelleto's supposed sanctity.

* NationalStereotypes: Several stories note stereotypes associated with various Italian regions. For instance, people from Sienna were supposedly stupid and all Venetians are greedy and corrupt (because UsefulNotes/{{Venice}} was a rival of Boccaccio's city state, UsefulNotes/{{Florence}}).

* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: Every time someone (both genders) rapes somebody, or impersonates a spouse or a lover to have sex with somebody else, you can expect the story to try to make the fact that the victim enjoyed it work as a justification.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: For years, the Marquis of Saluzzo test his wife's patience and obedience by mistreating her, pretending to kill their both children and pretending to dump her for a twelve year old girl. Jesus... (Day 10, Story 10)

%%* VillainWithGoodPublicity: [[spoiler:Ciapelletto]]

* AllWomenAreLustful: Masetto states "While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman" after he manages to sleep with every single nun in the convent. (Day 3, story 1)

* CorruptChurch: Very frequently referenced in his stories. Perhaps the most famous example is the story of Abraham, a Jew, converting to the Christian faith despite '''AND''' because of the corruption he witnessed firsthand, saying that any organization that has managed to withstand this much corruption must have the Holy Spirit holding it together.

* AllWomenAreLustful: "While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman."