Author: BOCCACCIO (Giovanni):
Title: The Decameron, Containing An hundred very pleasant Novels. Wittily discoursed, between several Honourabel Ladies, and three Noble Gentlemen. Preserved to Posterity by the Renowned John Bocccacio, the first refiner of Italian prose: And now translated into English. The last Five Days.
Description: London, Printed by E. Cotes, 1655. 12mo (in 6s), 143 x 81 mms., foliated [7], 185, woodcuts in text, contemporary sheepskin; a little worn, corners slightly crushed, front hinge cracked, top of spine chipped. but a fairly good copy Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375) composed these stories between 1348 and 1353, and he revised the work in 1530 - 1531; that manuscript is still extant. It first appeared in print in Venice in 1492. Some individual tales were translated into English early on (such as poet William Walter's 1525 Here begynneth y[e] hystory of Tytus & Gesyppus translated out of Latyn into Englysshe by Wyllyam Walter, somtyme seruaunte to Syr Henry Marney, a translation of tale X.viii), or served as source material for English authors such as Chaucer to rework. The first English translation to aim at completeness was printed in 1620-25 by Isaac Jaggard in London, three years before Jaggard published the first folio of Shakespeare. Seven young men and three young women narrate the hundred tales. Many of the tales are anti-clerical and anti-Catholic, and it was one of the books burned by Savonarolo in the "bonfire of the vanities" in 1497. Throughout the past six centuries, the lubricious elements found in some of the tales have attracted the attention of many painters, e. g. thehe painting by by Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Snyders and Jan Wildens (c. 1617) of the story of Cimone and Efigenia,, the First Story from the Fifth Day; and in the twentieth century Pier Paolo Pasolin's 1971 film of nine of the stories enjoyed a great deal of notoriety at the time but would hardly raise an eyebrow in 2025. There is no edition statement on the title-page, but this appears to be a separately-issued part of the fourth edition in two volumes. There are several reprints of this text, and I would guess that Cotes issued the second part as publisher and printer.

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