This lavish edition of The Decameron—Boccaccio’s 14th-century masterpiece of wit, romance, and human folly—is reimagined through the provocative Art Deco illustrations of Belgian symbolist artist Jean de Bosschère (1878–1953). Known for his erotic and grotesque style, de Bosschère’s black-and-white engravings amplify the text’s subversive spirit, capturing the tales’ bawdy humor, tragic passions, and medieval vitality with sinuous lines and dramatic contrasts.
The book presents Boccaccio’s 100 stories (told by Florentine nobles fleeing the Black Death) in an unexpurgated translation, framed by de Bosschère’s voluptuous figures, satirical demons, and lush architectural details. His art mirrors the Decameron’s duality—earthly desires clashing with moral allegory—while nodding to Renaissance woodcut traditions through a modernist lens.
A collector’s treasure, this edition bridges medieval literature and 20th-century avant-garde aesthetics. De Bosschère’s illustrations, controversial in their time, remain a bold visual counterpart to Boccaccio’s timeless exploration of lust, cunning, and survival.
