The Decameron

Translated as "ten days" The Decameron is widely accepted as the most popular and historically important of Boccaccio's works. Perhaps the most interesting aspects of the novel is the way it was written. While most books were written in Greek or Latin, Boccaccio decided to write The Decameron in Italian, the current vernacular of the town in which he lived. This, as you can imagine, made the novel quite accessible to a large number of people.

The tale goes as follow, a group of young people (seven women and three men) spend 14 days away from Florence to escape the Black Death. During 10 of the 14 days they exchange stories together. The end result is a total of 100 stories of love, loss, and virtue and a plethora of quick witty dialogue. Essentially The Decameron was an early renaissance version of How I Met Your Mother.

Following the common humanistic themes of the time, the novel's vernacular and focus on central characters combine to make a literary masterpiece.

Sources: TuscanyVillas.com  Wikipedia.com