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The Decameron is a collection of novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, completed in 1353. The Decameron is structured with a frame story containing a hundred tales told by a group of ten young men and women sheltering in a villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which had struck the city. 'Decameron' combines two Greek words, deka ('ten') and heméra ('day'), to form a term that means 'ten-day [event]'. The characters of the framing story tell their tales in a ten day period. Each of the ten storytellers is king or queen for an evening, during which time they can set the topic of the evening' tales, such as examples of human willpower, or love stories that end tragically. Only Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, is, thanks to his wit, allowed to tell a tale on any topic he wants. Each day also has a short introduction and a conclusion to continue the framing device.
