A collection of 100 stories written by the Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) between 1348 and 1358.
The stories were supposedly related by a group of young people who had fled from the town to the country during one of the frequently recurring outbreaks of plague. Most of the stories are amorous, many scurrilous, one of them concerns a minor 14th-century artist.
Both this work and Boccaccio's 'De Genealogia Deorum', recounting the classical myths, were valuable sources for artists.