Netflix will soon be bringing back an almost 700-year-old classic in series form. The setting is Italy at the time of the plague epidemic. The original has been infamous since its publication
During the coronavirus outbreak, simply moving into a country villa and telling each other dirty stories – not an appropriate solution? The characters in the classic Il Decamerone see it differently when the plague breaks out in Italy in the 14th century. Netflix has adapted the 671-year-old original as a series called The Decameron. The first long trailer is now available
Watch the English trailer for The Decameron here:
Netflix films story that has been repeatedly banned and censored over 671 years
In The Decameron, a group of noblemen and their servants go to an Italian country estate to sit out the omnipresent bubonic plague. Ten people tell ten stories over ten days, often with an erotic or crude twist.
The original, known as Il Decamerone or Decameron, is a collection of novellas by the Italian writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio, which he probably published in 1353 (via The Wrap ). The period of the plague in which the work is set is considered one of the darkest in human history. According to the Washington Post the disease claimed the lives of around 25 million people.
Boccaccio’s novellas themselves have enjoyed great popularity over the past 671 years, but they have also been censored or even banned time and again. According to the British Library, the Church in particular took offense at the depiction of the clergy in the work.
