Structure of The Decameron
The Decameron is made up of 100 stories told within 10 days. Each day
contains 10 stories told by 10 individual storytellers. The box model seen to the
left is a visual representation of the structure of The Decameron. Inside
each of the 10 days there are 10 individual stories or "Novellas." The Novellas are
marked in our days as "Novel." Within each of these "novels," there are various
types of text. These three types of text can be broken down into three categories:
Frame Narratives, Stories, and Songs. In our readable versions of the days the types
of texts are highlighted in the colors that are shown in the model.
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Frame Narratives - are blocks of text within the stories where the
storyteller is introducing their story. The frame narratives are highlighted in
light blue, and are commonly found at the start of a Novella.
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Stories - tagged within the text can be described as stories within
stories, or nested stories. They are portions of the text where a ficional character in the novella is
telling a story. In the whole of The Decameron there are only three nested stories, and they are highlighted in light green.
- Songs - The songs within the novellas are highlighted in pink, and are commonly found at the end of each day.
