The Decameron · Chapter
Day the First Introduction explained
The author introduces the devastating plague of 1348 in Florence, describing its symptoms and social breakdown.
What happens
The author introduces the devastating plague of 1348 in Florence, describing its symptoms and social breakdown. Seven young noblewomen (Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emilia, Lauretta, Neifile, Elisa) meet in Santa Maria Novella and decide to flee the city for a countryside villa. They invite three young men (including Dioneo) to join them. At the villa, Pampinea is elected first queen, and they establish a system of daily storytelling to pass the time joyfully.
Themes in this chapter
Fortune and Fate
The plague is described as sent by God's wrath or celestial influence; the ladies' escape is framed as seizing fortune's favor.
Suffering and Redemption
The grim suffering of the plague is contrasted with the promise of joyful storytelling as a form of redemption.
The Power of Storytelling
The entire framework of the Decameron is established here: storytelling as a means to cope with adversity and create meaning.
Characters to notice
- Pampinea
Elected queen of the first day; proposes the retreat and the storytelling framework.
- Fiammetta
One of the seven ladies who gather in Santa Maria Novella.
- Filomena
Crowns Pampinea with laurel; part of the initial group.
- Lauretta
Among the seven ladies; named in the list.
- Dioneo
The merriest of the young men; jokes about leaving his cares behind and urges merriment.
- Emilia
Listed as one of the seven ladies.
Key passages
“As often, most gracious ladies, as, taking thought in myself, I mind me how very pitiful you are all by nature, so often do I recognize that this present work will, to your thinking, have a grievous and a weariful beginning, inasmuch as the dolorous remembrance of the late pestiferous mortality, which it beareth on its forefront, is universally irksome to all who saw or otherwise knew it.”
The author acknowledges that the opening will be sad because it recalls the plague, but urges readers to persevere for the joy that follows.
Author's preface to the reader, setting expectations for the grim start.
“I say, then, that the years [of the era] of the fruitful Incarnation of the Son of God had attained to the number of one thousand three hundred and forty-eight , when into the notable city of Florence, fair over every other of Italy, there came the death-dealing pestilence...”
In 1348, a deadly plague arrived in Florence, the most beautiful city in Italy.
Historical setting of the Decameron.
“Let this grisly beginning be none other to you than is to wayfarers a rugged and steep mountain, beyond which is situate a most fair and delightful plain, which latter cometh so much the pleasanter to them as the greater was the hardship of the ascent and the descent;”
Think of this sad start like a difficult mountain pass that makes the beautiful valley beyond even more enjoyable.
Metaphor for the structure of the book: hardship followed by pleasure.
“And in truth, could I fairly have availed to bring you to my desire otherwise than by so rugged a path as this will be I had gladly done it; but being in a manner constrained thereto, for that, without this reminiscence of our past miseries, it might not be shown what was the occasion of the coming about of the things that will hereafter be read, I have brought myself to write them.”
I would have preferred a happier start, but I had to explain the plague to show why the stories that follow came to be told.
Author's justification for including the plague description.
“Pampinea’s words pleased mightily, and with one voice they elected her chief of the first day; whereupon Filomena, running nimbly to a laurel-tree... and plucking divers sprays therefrom, made her thereof a goodly and honourable crown.”
Everyone agreed to make Pampinea their queen for the first day, and Filomena made her a laurel crown.
Establishment of the storytelling leadership.
