The Decameron

London: Lawrence & Bullen Ltd. , 1893. Cloth. Very Good. 11" by 8". Louis Chalon. A smart limited edition of this collection of short stories from Boccaccio, translated and illustrated. Complete in two volumes. Limited to one thousand copies of which this is number eight-hundred and eighty-one. Volume one is illustrated with nine plates with tissue guards. Volume two is illustrated with six plates with tissue guards. Collated complete. A collection of one-hundred short stories, originally written in the fourteenth century, told by a group of seven young women and three young men as they shelter in a villa outside of Florence to escape the Black Death. The tales range from the erotic to the tragic, from tales of wit to moral life lessons. This work is considered an important record of Italian life at this time. Written by Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer, poet, and Renaissance humanist who was a known correspondent of Petrarch. Translated by John Payne, an English poet and translator. Illustrated by Louis Chalon, a French artist who exhibited classically inspired paintings. In the original green cloth binding. Externally, smart with light shelf wear and rubbing to the extremities resulting in minor fraying. Fading to the spine and the odd mark to the boards. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright and clean with light spotting to the endpapers. Very Good