Giovanni Boccaccio 
Decameron 

In this bold and bawdy fourteenth-century Italian masterpiece, ten friends escape the plague by telling a series of wise, witty, and irreverent stories. It’s the summer of 1348 and Venice is overrun by the Black Death. Taking refuge in an isolated country house, ten young friends agree to tell each other stories to pass the time. Choosing a new theme each day, the seven women and three men take turns spinning yarns about the world they have left behind. Through this framing device, Giovanni Boccaccio delivers a hundred tales that capture the great tragicomedy of Medieval life in all its duplicity, passion, and pathos.