Reading Contagion in Boccaccio's Decameron

In 1348, as the plague hit Florence, seven women and three men moved to the countryside with their servants, to protect themselves from contagion. This is the setting of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, which narrates the hundred tales the group tells to pass time. In this lecture, Eleonora Stoppino, Associate Professor of Italian, explores the moments of social and ethical breakdown described by Giovanni Boccaccio in his Decameron, as well as the potential for reconstruction after the plague.