Religion In The Decameron

Through the study of the records of courts, both secular and ecclesiastical, which exists in thousands of European and American archives and libraries, a patient and careful researcher can reconstruct particular images of “the world we have lost” and of the people who inhabited that world. From this vast, largely untapped repository of judicial records, Gene Brucker uses the notarial protocols of Ser Filippo Mazzei, which contains the transcripts of the litigation in the archiepiscopal court and the catasto records, which provides information about Florentine households, to piece together the dossier of Giovanni and Lusanna. The story of Giovanni and Lusanna explores the love and marriage in renaissance Florence and uncovers the gradation of the city’s social hierarchy and the role of women in society.

Lorenzo de’Medici had passed away leaving the city under control of his heir, Peiro. This took a huge toll on their lives once Peiro was ousted and the French King prepared to march his city through Florence. Alessandra, along with all the other unmarried girls, were forced to move out to convents for their own protection. However, this was an idea that Alessandra could not bare so she proposes that a marriage contract be made for her. It was important for Alessandra to stay in Florence, being a city that is the center of an explosion of artistic enterprise, she was eager to know about the latest news. So Alessandra was married off to an elegant middle-aged man named Cristoforo, who is very well-versed in art and literature. Cristoforo promises Alessandra freedom to do all that she wants, but on her wedding night, Alessandra soon finds out that her marriage is just a lie. Infact, her husband only married her so that his homosexuality wouldn’t be discovered. Cristoforo was actually in love with Alessandra's brother, Tomaso. At times, Cristoforo would leave home for a while and during one of his times away, he came back with Alessandra's brother. Alessandra, realizing that her marriage was anything but normal, became depressed and had an emotional breakdown. Cristoforo believed that her crying was due to a miscarriage, so he turned the nursery into an art studio for

“In this world, it is disturbing easy for Don John and Borachio to convince Claudio, because rumors happen to be everywhere.” (xxxii)

“I’ll be out of here and away from all you knaves for one time anyway, as not a month will pass before you’ll see whether I’m nobody or a somebody.” The story of Bianco Alfani reflected the nature of 14th century Florentine society where, as Alfani remarked, the election to public office could make or destroy a person. In late 14th century and early 15th century Florence, decreased population and expanding commerce provided a favorable environment for ambitious individuals. The real life examples of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati demonstrated the positive role of ambition in Florence. Pitti, a nobleman had an extremely successful career, partaking in military campaigns, holding public office in Florence and being an ambassador to

Giovanni Boccaccio's the Decameron, written in the Early Renaissance, is a sharp social commentary that reflected the ideas and themes of the Renaissance and of Renaissance Humanism. His tales of nuns and priests caught in compromising situations, corrupt clergy selling chances to see religious artifacts, and of wives cheating on their husbands show the changing ideals of the time and the corruption that was running rampant within the church and in the lives of the general populace. The Decameron speaks against this corruption and reflects the secular attitude of living as happily as possible, demoting the principals of Christian morality that had ruled daily life in the time before the Renaissance. Another concept that sprung from the

Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous medieval classic, The Canterbury Tales, offers its readers a vast array of characters. This God’s plenty features numerous unique and challenging individuals, but there is one specifically who stands out as particularly interesting. The immoral Pardoner, who, in a sense, sells away his soul for the sake of his own avarice, puzzles many modern readers with his strange logic. Already having laid his considerable guilt upon the table, this corrupted agent of the Church attempts to pawn off his counterfeit relics for a generous price. His actions are slightly troubling and mysterious, but his shameless misdeed is easily explainable if a reader chooses to interpret the man as a symbol rather than a fully formed human

From the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations to the Muslim world, antiquity has always been filled with religions of all sorts. These religions helped guide how ancient peoples lived life and came about doing even the most common tasks that people like us do today. Religion impacted the civilizations of the ancient world by greatly influencing how peoples of ancient civilizations acted, how they thought about the world around them, how civilizations were organized and maintained, and how they interacted with civilizations of another religion.

The renaissance is a time of reform, change, and enlightenment. Artist, poets, and writer, prosper in this time period. Everything seems to being going so well until politics and the Catholic Church is brought into the mix. Both heavily mix, especially in Italy, were the Rome which the capital of the Catholic Church is located. Corrupt families come into power. With these families come murder and scandal. Two very prominent families of the time are the Borgia’s and Medici’s. Both families are notorious of their murders, and scandals.

Chapter seven begins by identifying mercy as what distinguishes Catholic morality. The text also states that many Catholics believe that what is right for Catholics is right for everyone, and what is wrong for Catholics is wrong for everyone (Pg. 117). Since I am not a Catholic, I do not agree with this idea. Although I agree with many Catholic morals, America was founded on religious freedom and we have been given the privilege to have our own individual beliefs. I do not feel it is right to make laws specific to one religion or the other, since we are a country of many religions and belief systems. I do, however, agree with the Catholic tradition of helping someone in need. I wish this were a universal principle for all people, although it seems many Americans are often too

This remark by Donna Anna is an accurate portrayal of her frustration with his actions. The comedy of Leoporello’s Catalogue Aria is not what many would consider the admirable description of a hero. Behind Giovanni’s back, the jokes about his extensive history are not done so with admiration. Instead, the comedy enhances the absurdity and childlike obsession within his

The Decameron was a collection of bawdy and serious tales written by Boccaccio. Boccaccio was most likely born in Florence or Certaldo and was the illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Bocacino di Chellino. As a youth he was trained to follow in his father 's business but he eventually chose instead to study canon law and subsequently pursued the arts. It is a combination of Greek words for ten and day. According to Frankforter, the Decameron is a fictive record of a hundred stories that ten Florentine men and women told to entertain themselves while they hid from the plague in the comfort of a luxurious house (Frankforter, pg. 348). The one hundred allegorical stories are shared through the narrative voices of these young people as they spend their nights regaling the company with tales from the erotic, sensual, and bawdy to the intellectual, philosophical or tragic. The narrative 's fundamental theme is of struggle between life and death in the face of the Black Plague and the various ways life continues in spite of traditional moral attitudes and beliefs. While primarily a work of fiction, the Introduction to The Decameron has emerged as an important historical record of the physical, psychological, and social effects of the aggressive spread of the previously unknown Yersina pestis bacteria. It provides a significant philosophical insight into the medieval

The reading is a document study of Florentine society, and illustrates how Florence was trying to enact laws to stop sodomy. On the first read of it may not seem important that it is Florence trying to enact this law, but Karras’s book provides context for why. She delves into Florence’s reputation for having a sodomy epidemic, as it became such a problem that the term “florentzen” became common slang that meant “to have homosexual intercourse.” She contextualizes the urgency behind the need to have legislation to stop sodomy in Florence. Having such a reputation could greatly damage the city, not only in reputation, but it might drive individuals away which could have serious economic or political

Much like that of the creature’s war, Beatrice’s battle in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” is against the monstrous depravity of Baglioni, her father, and her lover, Giovanni Guasconti. Baglioni’s depravity stems from greed. Baglioni is a “professor of medicine” and a “physician of eminent repute” (291). According to Baglioni, Dr. Rappaccini “has as much science as any member of the faculty—with perhaps one single exception,” the exception being Baglioni himself.

These testimonies portrayed Franceschini was someone who aggravate this scandal to happen with having girls stay with him, as his servants. Through all of the testimonies from the people that lived around the area and went to the coffee shop, the trail really point out to the reader the adult violation of an innocence of a child. Today as in Venice in the late 18th century, a sexually abused child is supposed to have been robbed of their childhood, which consists of an sexless time, and no one understood what the term innocence meant, or how to could be taken away, Wolff write “the chimera of innocence” with deems to childhood still in power on page 246. In this instance, Franceschini’s defense was based on the girl’s virginity and the hypothesis that adults close to her had manipulated her statement. The judges knew that Paolina was innocent by the way she used childish language.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of religion is as follows: “the belief in a god or in a group of gods, an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods, or an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group” (Merriam-Webster.) My personal definition of religion is that it is a set of beliefs and practices that generally pertain the worship of one or more than one spiritual beings or representations of a spiritual power. Religion can be personal belief or an organization or group of people who have similar beliefs and values. There are many different types of religions in the world and have been since the