This new edition of The Decameron is the first modern English rendering of the authoritative and complete text of this ravishingly rich and robust work. Set against the background of the Black Death of 1348, the hundred linked tales in this wonderful masterpiece are peopled by nobles, knights, abbots, nuns, doctors, lawyers, philosophers, students, artists, tradesmen, troubadours, peasants, gluttous, gamblers, police – and lovers both faithful and faithless.