THE DECAMERON. The Modell of Wit, Mirth, Eloquence and Conversation Framed in ten Dayes, of an Hundred Curious Pieces, by Seven Honourable Ladies, and Three noble Gentlemen; Preserved to Posterity by the Renowned JOHN BOCCACCIO The First Refiner of Italian Prose. Translated into English anno 1620, with an Introduction by Edward Hutton.

First edition of the Easton Collector's Edition With Woodcuts in the Renaissance manner by Fritz Kredel and frontispiece portrait by Michael J. Mariano. 8vo, bound in the publisher's original red leather, the covers fully gilt in an all-over design, the spine with raised bands separating the compartments, the compartments fully decorated and lettered in gilt, silk doublures and endleaves, all edges gilt, silk ribbon marker. xxi, 536 pp. A pristine copy, as mint.

Edizione: first of the collector's edition. boccaccio is considered along with dante and petrarch as part of the great triumvirate of italian writers. all contemporaries, they established perhaps the first true post classical literary style in italy, and thus in western civilization. the decameron is boccaccio’s most influential work and has inspired generations of writers all around the world. perhaps most importantly to english literature the decameron is believed to had the greatest influence on chaucer (though perhaps through an anonymous translation) for the structure of his canterbury tales.<br> the work is a gathering of tales from several sources created by boccaccio and written over several years, but finally collected under one title between 1349 and 1351. the story is of seven women and three men who have left florence for ten days in order to avoid the plague. they depart for neighboring villas and over the course of the next ten days each person tells a tale to entertain the others. the hundred tales are considered one of the greatest works in italian literature and have influenced successive generations of writers for centuries.