Gino Boccasile's "Decameron" Illustrations_1

Giovanni Boccaccio by Andrea del Castagno, fresco transferred to wood, circa 1450; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (or Decamerone, 1348-1353) is a frame story, including 100 tales, settled in Italy in the course of the 1348 plague pandemics (also known as the Black Death).
A group of seven young women and three young men leave Florence to a villa in the countryside of Fiesole (Tuscany) for two weeks. Every member of the group tells a story every night, except for one day per week for chores and the holy days. The
result is in ten nights of story telling in the course of the two weeks. By the end of the fortnight they have told 100 tales.
Every night a different subject is chosen, ranging from the erotic to the tragic.


In 1559, Decameron was included in the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of prohibited books).


Gino Boccasile

Italian graphic and painter Gino Boccasile conceived and designed 101 color illustrations
of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron.
However, the complete work was left undone because of Gino Boccasile's death on 10th May 1952.


The edition of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron with the illustrations designed by Gino Boccasile was published by
Edizioni D'Arte "A La Chance Du Bibliophile" (Milan) in 1955.

See also:

Gino Boccasile's Grandi Firme Covers

Gino Boccasile's Paris Tabou Covers

Gino Boccasile's Ads_1

Gino Boccasile's Ads_2

Gino Boccasile's Ads_3

Gino Boccasile's Covers (Miscellany)

Gino Boccasile's Paperback Covers